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GLHF MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

EXCLUSIVES

INTERVIEWS

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7

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14

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20

22

28

31

34

38

IntroductionMessage from the Staff

A Question of CastersJacob Harrison

CombatEx Talks DirtyEvan Crothers

HomestoryCup IV RoundupBenjamin Fisher

Matt “LookNoHands” FinkChristopher Kinniburgh

Peepmode BreakdownGLHF Magazine

Starcraft 2 Mod Toolsmegabuster

The Future of Starcraft 2 as an eSportDavid Lo

DaisyPrimeAndrea Chiang

KellyMILKIESWilliam Dahlstrom

ThorZaINChristian Hanner

Gosu.RumDavid Litts

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GLHF MAGAZINE

STRATEGY

GUIDES

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46

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63

66

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Ladder AnxietyJoseph Chen

Conquering Ladder Anxi-ety and Becoming a Better GamerNick Ippolito

On Time in Starcraft 2Stephen Chiu

How To Get The Most Out Of Your OverlordsJonathan Baldwin

Why You Should Never Forget To Research Combat ShieldMark Bevan

Newbie CornerJacob Harrison

Roach-Ling Baneling BustTim Clark

Leenock MLG Finals BuildEvan Crothers

Positive MindsetTim Clark

Xsplit Casting GuideAli Haghani

Terran Bronze To Diamond Video Guide TeamTrebis

All artwork and characters are copyrights of Bliz-zard Entertainment, Inc.

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GLHF MAGAZINE

IntroductionBy Jonathan Lee

MESSAGE FROM THE STAFF

Hot damn. We finally did it.

It is April 2012 and you are reading the very first

issue of GLHF Magazine.

For our first issue, we are bringing you a mix of

articles from many writers who are making their

first publishing debuts. We have interviews with

pros, helpful guides, build examinations and some

features. Before you read on, I want your permission

to get on my soapbox for a second and let you know

a little more about what we at GLHF are all about. If

you’re not interested, this is the point where you can

skip past this opening feature and begin enjoying the

contents of the magazine right away.

I’m trying to think of something insightful or witty

to say but nothing is coming to mind. Maybe that’s

a good thing. As a reader, I always appreciate raw

honesty more than punchy quips, so I’ll be honest

here. I’m pretty scared. Our ship, still wet from the

wine of a fresh christening, has set off and is sailing

towards an uncertain horizon. Now our commit-

ment and passion will be put to the test. Like any

start-up, there is the constant fear that this will not be

a sustainable project. That it will fail. That we might

make horrible, horrible mistakes in the future that

permanently alienates the community from us. The

only thing that keeps us going is our belief that we

are fulfilling a role that the eSports scene sorely needs

more of: Independent eSports reporting, especially

reporting that really focus on the biographical and

social aspects of the scene.

When FruitDealer won the very first GSL tourna-

ment, he said that he would be using the money to

pay for his father’s medical treatments. Whatever

became of that? Has his father gotten better? When

Naniwa performed his infamous probe rush against

NesTea during their BlizzCup match, the SC2 com-

munity was swamped with statements from both

foreigner fans and players. What did the Korean fans

and players think about the situation? With Naniwa

adjusting well now to life in Korea, has this percep-

tion of him changed? These are the stories that GLHF

wants to follow up. This is one of the reasons why

we love eSports so much. eSports, just like any of the

traditional sports, is a vehicle for cultural understand-

ing and heartwarming stories.

To the staff, GLHF is our baby. There is no analogy

more appropriate, and as they say, it takes a village to

raise a child. We were born from the community, so

it’s only natural that as we keep doing our thing, we

will be nurtured by the community. We need your

support to bring you content at the high quality that

you deserve, in the form of exposure, contributions

(writing, reporting, design), story leads, suggestions

and donations.

In return, we promise never to compromise quality

for quantity. We will never try to pad our issue out

with fluff articles, bland features and sensationalist

reporting. If we have a great month, then we’ll print

a huge issue full of great content for you. If we have

a slow month, then we will give you a leaner issue

while maintaining the same level of quality. We will

never bore you or insult your intelligence with any-

thing less. However, we are human, and we will make

mistakes. Sometimes, we’ll just have bad months.

This particular month might be one of them. All of

our contributions have been from unpaid writers

looking to get their starts. Please be understand-

ing about their level of skill. We have chosen these

articles for our first issue because we believe in their

potential, but if the magazine ever begins to turn a

profit, we will be adamant about paying our contribu-

tors. You can keep us accountable to that right here,

right now. We want to reach a point where everyone

working and contributing to GLHF gets paid because

that is what good content deserves.

GLHF has an eclectic staff. Most of us are students.

I myself was an editorial contractor at Major League

Gaming until I became one of the casualties of the

mass layoffs last holiday season, and I have yet to find

paying work since. There are some of us who have

rebuffed offers of non-competition, salaried jobs from

bigger publications because we believe so strongly in

the future of this magazine. In short, GLHF is a labor

of love, born out of a strong belief that we will deliver

eSports content in a way that fans never knew they

wanted. Yes, I’m scared. We’re all scared. But we’re

also hopeful.

Enjoy the first issue. Shoot us some e-mails. Tell us

what you think.

And above all, good luck.

Have fun.

“This is one of the reasons why we love eSports

so much. eSports, just like any of the traditional

sports, is a vehicle for cultural understanding and

heartwarming stories.”

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GLHF MAGAZINE

“StarCraft” broke into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the best-selling PC Strategy Game of all time, topping 9.5 million copies sold worldwide.

MISCELLANEOUS FACTS

6

GLHF MAGAZINE

exclusivesA Question Of Casters

CombatEX Talks Dirty

Homestory Cup IV Roundup

Matt “LookNoHands” Fink

Peepmode Breakdown

SC2 Mod Tools: An Abandoned Playground?

The Future Of E-Sports

Jacob Harrison

Evan Crothers

Benjamin Fisher

Christopher Kinniburgh

GLHF Magazine

megabuster

David Lo

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GLHF MAGAZINE

A Question of CastersBy Jacob Harrison

Day9, Tasteless, Artosis, Rotterdam, Mr Bitter, DJ

Wheat, dApollo, TotalBiscuit—what do all these

people have in common? There are three possible

answers:

• They’re all casters

• You’ve heard of them all

• They, in some way, helped you get into StarCraft

If you got all three answers, then congratulations!

You can have a biscuit. The point of the question

is this: These people are some of the most famous

individuals in the StarCraft 2 world. As much as we

would like to believe that StarCraft 2 appealed to

us because of our natural affinity with the cognitive

playing behind real time strategy or because daily life

simply didn’t require enough brainpower, I really

don’t think it was either of those things. It’s likely that

the catalyst that got you involved within the StarCraft

2 community were the aforementioned casters and

people like them.

Casting is proving itself integral to StarCraft 2 as

an eSport. Whether you like it or not, people aren’t

coming to watch StarCraft 2 just because of the pretty

colors or the explosions. Watching StarCraft 2 isn’t as

simple as watching tennis or some other commonly

understood sport. In order to really get the most out

of the viewing experience, the audience must pos-

sess a level of basic knowledge. Unfortunately, this

knowledge is often lacking.

Now that’s absolutely fine if you’re a player of any

standard at all, and you follow the professional scene.

However, if you’re just a frequenter of YouTube and

you happen across HDStarcraft’s channel, it isn’t

the game that draws you in, it’s HD himself. Casters

provide that necessary stepping stone that allows

anybody to watch and understand the game. They

are, in effect, conscientious middle-men, providing

a service that broadens the range of StarCraft 2 as

a spectator sport, and enriching the experience for

those of us who follow it regularly. Another example

GLHF MAGAZINE

might be that very first time you watched Husky

nearly asphyxiate with excitement, slurring his words

into a nearly indecipherable mass of sound. I’ll admit

that was what got me into the game. The idea that

anyone could be so unashamedly passionate about

something that most people regard merely as a nerdy

pastime was liberating—I won’t deny.

The quest to become more mainstream has a strange

presence in StarCraft 2. It is greeted by most as a

pleasant inevitability, but by some as a terrifying

worst-case scenario. Either way, casters carry the

brunt of bringing StarCraft 2 to the public. Are we,

as a community, comfortable with this? Do we think

our crop of casters is up to the task? Do we have the

right to judge?

The answer, to me, comes down to an assessment

of what casters today actually are and what they do.

What are the qualities that make them so appealing

to us as a community? An eye for timing, an ability to

give the happenings of the game that extra dimension

of drama and consequence. Enthusiasm. A great voice

helps as well (TotalBiscuit anyone?). But that can’t be

everything. There are millions of people out there in

the world, and probably thousands who follow Star-

Craft 2 that fill all of these descriptions. Despite this,

there cannot be more than fifteen really high-level

casters. What sets them apart from the rest?

What quality, or qualities, do they have that allow

them to bear so much responsibility, at least in terms

of the growth of StarCraft in the mainstream? It

seems very difficult to pin down. Perhaps a kind of

odd charisma? You cannot deny that Day[9] has this

quality in some quantity. But other casters who are

perhaps not quite so obviously charismatic—dApollo

or Painuser for example—are both informative and

entertaining casters.

Perhaps then, it is a knowledge of the game that

allows a charismatic person to become a great caster?

This is certainly the case with the casting duo Tasto-

sis, who together are possibly the most knowledge-

able personalities in the StarCraft 2 community. But

“There are millions of people out there in the world […] Despite this, there cannot be more than fifteen really high-level casters. What sets them apart from the rest?”

what of TotalBiscuit? It’s well-known that his knowl-

edge of the game isn’t as great as some other casters

but still, the community finds him to be a thoroughly

worthy and highly entertaining caster.

Through trying to dissect what makes a great caster

there seems to be only one conclusion to be drawn;

that no one thing makes a great caster. In turn, the

conclusion we can draw from that fact is that we can-

not know if our casters have the qualities necessary to

take eSports to the general population. This might be

the cue for us to drop everything and start panick-

ing because casters are killing eSports. Don’t do

that people, it’s undignified and there’s no use in it.

Furthermore, if hundreds of thousands of people can

watch Artosis getting “nerd chills” at Major League

Gaming and tens of thousands of people can watch

Bitterdam affectionately bickering like a married

couple at Homestory Cup IV then by Tassadar they

must be doing something right.

As a member of the community, I’m not in the slight-

est bit worried - I’m excited. Besides, if being a great

caster requires no identifiable qualities, then that

means there are countless people out there who can

do it, and that only means good things for StarCraft

2.

8

GLHF MAGAZINE

COMBATEX TALKS DIRTYBad Manners And Strategy

By Evan Crothers

Who says you don’t learn anything useful at school?

I recently had the pleasure of attending a particularly

informative lecture at the University of Waterloo.

The subject? Abusing Protoss. The professor? None

other than the infamous Wasif “CombatEx” Khan.

The self-proclaimed “God of Protoss” gave a few

hours of his time to impart some wisdom upon the

Waterloo StarCraft community. Pen and paper at the

ready, I took notes until my hand cramped more than

after the longest of laddering sessions.

CombatEx covered a variety of topics in his lecture,

from the under-utilization of warp prisms, to the best

way to engage (or more precisely, to avoid engaging)

a Brood Lord and Infestor composition. However,

by far the most fascinating—and most controversial—

part of the lecture was a segment on an element of

strategy for which CombatEx is world renowned: his

bad manners.

You see, for CombatEx, BM is an essential part of

StarCraft strategy, especially in multi-match sets.

It’s no secret that the outcome of a StarCraft match

is highly dependent on the mental state of the indi-

vidual playing the game. CombatEx employs a va-

riety of mind games in order to throw his opponent

off in his matches. Among the ones he elaborated on

during his lecture were “Shit-Talking”, “Pausing”, and

“Cheese”.

Shit-Talking

Shit-talking is a simple concept, but it has powerful

results. Even when an opponent knows that you are

trying to aggravate them, they can still fall into your

trap. According to CombatEx, shit-talking causes

your opponent to stop thinking about the game, and

start thinking about the things that you’ve said (or

how badly they want to murder you). A frustrated

opponent is a distracted opponent, and a distracted

opponent is a substantial advantage.

Pausing

CombatEx is also a firm believer in using the Pause

feature to ruin his opponent’s micro during a fight.

While this may be frowned upon as poor conduct in a

tournament, CombatEx is happy enough to do it dur-

ing ladder matches—if only for a laugh. The Pausing

Game begins simply enough. You Pause the game in

the middle of a huge fight. Your opponent hesitates,

his finger poised precariously over Neural Para-

site. He doesn’t want to type, for fear that you will

immediately unpause. He doesn’t want to unpause

because—well, he’s too damn nice. A few moments

pass, and a baneling tumbles across the Mar Sara

desert, before you say “sec”. Your opponent starts

to relax and moves his finger away from his Neural

Parasite hotkey to respond.

You unpause.

According to CombatEx, the best “counter” to the

Pausing Game is to employ the tactic yourself, creat-

ing a ten second Pause Metagame, in which both

player attempt to throw one another off by pausing

and unpausing at opportune points during the fight.

While CombatEx is quite proud of his own expertise

in this area, he also jokingly saluted a certain RatZ-

Deezer for his mastery of the Pausing Game.

Cheese

For those of us without the stomach for BM, the

most useful tactic that CombatEx can teach us about

throwing off our opponents is to use cheese. Com-

batEx uses cheese to his utmost advantage during

a game, citing its fantastic applications when used

in conjunction with shit-talking. A frustrated and

rattled opponent is more likely to make poor deci-

sions. Taking your opponent out of their comfort

zone through cheese only exacerbates this. Even the

reputation for being a “cheesy” player is an advantage

in a tournament setting, as it can force your op-

9

ponent to play more conservatively than they would

normally.

I hope that the fruits of my notes have provided some

knowledge into how BM and cheese can work to a

player’s advantage, or at the very least, provided some

insight into the merciless mind of one of StarCraft’s

most infamous players.

Special thanks to Wasif for his contribution to the

Waterloo StarCraft community.

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GLHF MAGAZINE

HOMESTORY CUP IV ROUNDUPBy Benjamin Fisher

One of the first invitational tournaments of 2012,

HomeStory Cup IV ran from January 5th to 8th.

Held by Dennis “TaKe” Gehlen, it featured an

impressive lineup of both players and commentators.

While much of the community’s focus has been on

interviews, fan-boy inanities and… well, MC, there

was some serious gameplay worth analysing and dis-

cussing. After all, StarCraft is about tactics and critical

thinking, and the pros have much to offer.

MC took home first place for Team SK with $7,500

USD from the prize pool ($20,000 split between the

top 8). He demonstrated an unmatched mastery of

the game, excelling particularly in his blink stalker

micro as well as game awareness and timing. Coming

in at second place was Sound, representing Korean

team StarTale. Sound displayed an impressive ability

to adapt to altered circumstances, bouncing back at

whatever his opponent had to offer. It is a skill much

desired at all levels of StarCraft, but demonstrated

with ostensible ease and intuition in higher tiers.

In third place was JYP from team Evil Geniuses, an

excellent Protoss player whose creativity and versatil-

ity never ceases to surprise and amaze. The standings

were as follows:

1. MC (P)

2. Sound (T)

3. JYP (P)

4. viOLet (Z)

5. MarineKing (T)

6. ReaL (P)

7. DIMAGA (Z)

8. Nerchio (Z)

With over 170 match-ups and 32 participants,

HomeStory Cup IV is one of 2012’s biggest live

tournaments yet.

This is definitely one of the longest professional

StarCraft II games I’ve ever witnessed, running for

a total of 55 minutes. Both players start a standard

build: Dimaga droning until 15 for his spawning

pool while JYP opts for a forge fast expand (FFE).

There isn’t much excitement until the 15 minute

mark, wherein Dimaga assaults JYP’s second expan-

sion from 3 different angles, spurring a long micro-

intensive confrontation:

The rest of the match was a back-and-forth

showdown between the two, each countering one

another’s units effectively. Once they were both

mined out, Dimaga stood the victor, having spent

his minerals wisely, as opposed to JYP, who argu-

ably wasted his on two lost motherships.

JYP’s take on a FFE is definitely effective. It’s not a

skill easily mastered, but he seems to have it down

pat:

He places the cannon behind his buildings, so that

they act as a shield. This requires him to place only

one pylon to power the cannon, gateway, cybernet-

ics core and forge, which is good for his economy.

In order for zerglings to attack probes or the can-

non, they would have to travel around the nexus,

and without upgrades, they would be destroyed

in two hits. Making them run further while in the

range of the cannon means that their numbers will

be whittled down with ease.

On the other hand, a good tactic employed by

Dimaga to get around this was to use brood lords.

Later in the game JYP walls off completely with

gateways. To break them down, out of range of

cannons and other units, Dimaga employs brood

lords and their broodlings.

This is definitely a good tactic for all Zerg players to

remember, it can be applied in many situations. For

example, it could be used as a harass - sneaking

brood lords behind enemy lines, taking out produc-

tion structures in your opponent’s main while as-

saulting his/her natural. Assault on all fronts can be

confusing and halting for your opponent; it leaves

you in total command.

Dimaga v. JYP Game 1Quarter-finals, Dual Sight

GLHF MAGAZINE

This was a mid-sized game, running for 20 minutes.

Both players begin with the standard starters for

PvZ: JYP goes for FFE while ViOLet drones. There

is a lot of back and forth: expansions destroyed

and rebuilt, with very little consequence. Both

players, however, are very responsive, so there

is a lot of creativity and flexibility in response to

unit composition. For example, being assaulted by

zerglings in his natural expansion, JYP warps in two

dark templars (DTs) to destroy them. Anticipating

that ViOLet will spawn overseers in response, JYP

morphs them into archons, and creates a templar

archive, researching psionic storm to deal with

ViOLet’s zerglings and infestors.

While there were a lot of random and short-lived

counter-tactics employed by both sides, JYP’s

force-field placement stood out above all else.

For example, in one situation after taking ViOLet’s

second expansion, JYP moves his stalker/zealot/

sentry combo to ViOLet’s natural. On the ramp he

is faced by two spine crawlers in front and a mass

of zerglings from behind. His immaculate force-

field placement allows him to cause some serious

damage by prolonging the attack.

Not only does JYP block off the zerglings from

attacking his stalkers and sentries, but he even

manges to squeeze a zealot in-between two blocks!

This allows him to reduce the amount of zerglings

facing his stalkers by the time the force-fields ex-

pire. This kind of placement is very difficult to carry

out and requires an immense amount of practice.

Using a mothership at any level of StarCraft is risky.

Costing 400 minerals, 400 gas and 8 supply it’s defi-

nitely a unit that requires much training to employ

efficiently. As mentioned earlier, Dimaga effectively

won because of JYP’s motherships: JYP threw away

800 minerals, 800 gas and 16 supply - all because

he couldn’t support it in combat. JYP lost them eas-

ily to Dimaga’s mass corrupters, which just stripped

it apart

If you ever find yourself stuck in this situation,

for whatever reason, the most important thing to

remember is that your mothership is exposed, so

it’s the likely (in fact only) target for sniping. JYP

could have countered the corrupters with anti-air

units, or just re-directed his stalkers to attack the

corrupters.

This may seem like nit-picking (in fact, it is) but it’s

still important to note. In their Bo5, a common

scouting tactic employed by MC was a feign-leave,

with a probe. In the early-game he would scout

around Nerchio’s mineral line and then back off.

He’d wait a few seconds out of Nerchio’s vision,

and then run around the line again. The purpose

is to trick your opponent into revealing their build

strategy. Nerchio assumed that the scouting probe

had left and responded by building an assimilator.

MC scouted this with his feign-leave, and was thus

prepared for Nerchio to tech up. It’s an interesting

tactic to take into consideration, because even little

details such as these can have disastrous implica-

tions.

Violet v. JYP Game 2For 3rd Place, Antiga Shipyard

Dimaga v. JYP Game 1

Quarter-finals, Dual Sight

Nerchio v. MC Game 3

Quarter-finals, Tal’darim Altar

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GLHF MAGAZINE

This was one of my favourite match-ups of the tournament. Sound and ReaL truly displayed all that we expect from pro gamers. Each game was just as interesting as the next, all featuring an equal mix of technique and flair.

ReaL v. SoundQuarter Finals, Best-of-Five

MATCHUP SPOTLIGHT

Game 1Shattered Temple

Game 2Antiga Shipyard

Game 3Tal’darim Altar

Game one is definitely a match to see, if you can. It

had everything: from bunker rushes to DT drops, it

really had it all. Sound was the victor, having an ad-

vantage with his contain right from the beginning:

Unexpectedly, he didn’t follow it up with an expan-

sion, but kept pumping out units. ReaL’s response,

of course, was to send out DTs for Sound’s rela-

tively unprotected main:

A well played move indeed. It forced Sound to

withdraw his units, allowing ReaL to take back his

natural. However this minor victory was short-lived,

as Sound returned with siege tanks, to resume the

pressure, forcing a cancel on ReaL’s expansion.

Meanwhile, ReaL decided to sneak in a nexus at the

field north of Sound’s natural, acknowledging that

his natural is a lost cause:

Much back-and-forth ensues between the two, and

Sound’s continual pressure proves to break ReaL -

at 25:17 he calls GG.

In this game, Sound attempts to set up a contain

with a bunker once more. Yet ReaL has learned,

and has a zealot ready to take out the SCV and

bunker before any marines arrive. ReaL shifts

his game plan, expanding very early. By the 10

minute mark he has 2 expansions up and running.

However, Sound scouts the second expansion with

his factory, sending in a marine/marauder combo

to force out ReaL’s army. At the same time, he

drops two medivacs full of marauders into ReaL’s

main, taking full advantage of his frontal assault.

A rewarding tactic: the drop destroys two forges

(both researching +1 shield/damage upgrades)

and a twilight council while the expansion assault

significantly cuts ReaL’s mineral collection rate.

The game continues with such marine/marauder

drops and frontal assaults until ReaL’s main and

expansions are slowly destroyed. By the 16 minute

mark only the natural is left, until finally it falls, and

with it, ReaL. While ReaL resisted valiantly, Sound’s

macro is to be commended: at one point he set up

two expansions while dropping into two separate

bases. It’s not often that you see that kind of skill.

Surprisingly, it is ReaL who begins to put on the

pressure. At the 6 minute mark he’s already put-

ting pressure on Sound’s natural expansion. Here,

Sound’s bunker proves useful, suppressing the

push.

ReaL persists with his gateway units, massing

stalkers, sentries and zealots, while Sound adds

marauders to the mix. At the 11 minute mark a

confrontation occurs at the centre of the map. Re-

aL’s force-fields allows him to divide and conquer

Sound’s units with minimal losses. He pushes the

attack, forcing a GG from Sound. This match just

goes to show how effective early-game aggression

can be in deciding the outcome of a game.

GLHF MAGAZINE

Game 4Terminus SE

Game 5Shakuras Plateau

SCV rush at 7 minutes... enough said. But seriously,

a bit of a wacky game on both players’ parts. The

SCV rush failed, although it did take out ReaL’s

expansion, which is quite a set back early game.

Fighting cheese with cheese, ReaL returns with his

dark templar harass. At least this time his micro

is better, splitting them up as to force Sound to

spend more orbital energy on scans. Not much

more excitement occurs, except for unfortunate

force-field placements by ReaL, resulting in a zealot

massacre:

The desired effect was probably to push the

marines out of range, but it was ineffective. zealots

were taken out as they walked around the force-

fields in range of the marines. But 4 DTs were sent

in as the payload, so the real damage was done in

a greater sense.

ReaL won the match by forcing his way into Sound’s

main. Sound had little defence because he, at the

same time, was on his way to drop into ReaL’s. Un-

fortunate for Sound, ReaL’s units destroyed much

of his main and out-numbered his army.

Again, ReaL opts for dark templars, and this time

Sound knows it’s coming. ReaL showed some

really good warp prism maneuvering, pulling DT

and zealot drops, but to no avail. The ever-faithful

marine/marauder/medivac combination serves

once more. With three orbital commands and

scattered missile turrets, Sound countered those

DTs quite effectively. When the final push came by

ReaL with sentries, chargelots, stalkers and archons

it was quashed with relative ease by the stimpack’d,

shield-wielding, shell shootin’ M/M/M. ReaL called

GG once his army was obliterated - 37 supply to

111.

HIGHLIGHT MATCHES

PROS TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR

Here are a few of our favourites. They’re definitely worth a look:

• MC v. JYP Semi-finals

• Grubby v. Ret Group H, Group Stage #1

• HerO v. HayprO Group F, Group Stage #1

• ThorZaIN v. Nerchio Group A, Group Stage #1

• MarineKing v. ViOLet Quarter-finals

1. MC He has once again demonstrated the extent of his skill, upholding the title of most consistent Protoss player out there.

2. ReaL While he didn’t get into the top 3, ReaL displayed some really impres-sive talent. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a lot more of him in the future.

3. Dimaga One of the top Zerg players out there, Dimaga’s confidence and game awareness are always impressive.

13

MISCELLANEOUS FACTS

It takes 26 banelings to destroy a pile of

destructible rocks.

14

GLHF MAGAZINE

Matt “LookNoHands” FinkPLAYER SPOTLIGHT

Born without a spleen, Matt was vulnerable to in-

fections at a young age. At one and a half years old

he had an infection and his arms and legs had to

be amputated. Dealing with a disability has been a

challenge Matt seems more than willing to take on.

He’s a competitive StarCraft II player who hopes to

eventually qualify for a major tournament and beat

a top tier pro player in a best of series. Outside of

StarCraft, Matt Fink is a Political Science graduate

of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and

is planning on studying Public Health in graduate

school at the University of Minnesota.

I was able to talk to Matt earlier this week. In that

hour, we discussed a number of topics, from his

time in Korea to his goals in graduate school and

beyond. One thing which stood out to me through-

out the interview was the level of excitement and

joy Matt exuded as he discussed everything he was

doing. When I asked him about his charisma, he

described how competition had always driven him,

and made him more pleasant. He uses competi-

tion as an outlet for his over competitiveness and

stubbornness, and by playing StarCraft, he is able

to calm those features of his personality. He’s

always enjoyed mental exercises. When he was

in school and studying for a math test, he would

go over all the possible math problems again and

again until he could answer them all. Just as he

found the mental work of math in college relaxing,

he finds StarCraft an emotionally relaxing pursuit.

The remarkable thing Blizzard has done with

StarCraft, according to Matt, is that they created an

equal playing field for someone with a physical dis-

ability. Matt’s competitive nature did not start with

StarCraft, but it’s the first sport he felt was possible

to compete at the same level as any other competi-

tor. His previous experiences with competitive

debate were still difficult, as he found ‘flowing’, a

note taking technique used in debate, took a great

deal of effort and he never felt equal to other

competitors. The power of StarCraft 2, according

to Matt, is the game’s ability to reward brain power

rather than physical prowess. The game relies on

the speed of the brain rather than the speed of the

fingers. By playing and practicing at a competitive

level throughout his travels, LookNoHands has

experienced “a journey of self exploration” into the

concept of being truly competitive.

Matt’s travels through Europe and Asia are being

sponsored by The Watson Fellowship, “a one year

grant for independent study and travel outside

the United States.” Matt’s project with Watson is

to travel throughout Europe and Asia to interact

with disabled gamers. Though the high language

barrier has made it difficult to meet and interact

Matt, as he played a game with Mr. Bitter on ESL TV

Matt “LookNoHands” Fink is an American StarCraft II Pro currently living in Korea. LookNoHands has been travel-ing the globe, spending time in Europe and Asia, experienc-ing the StarCraft II commu-nity through interactions with players, fans, and community leaders. Throughout all of his travels, he has had a spe-cific goal—to experience and interact with disabled gamers around the world.

By Christopher Kinniburgh

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GLHF MAGAZINE

with many disabled gamers, he has still learned a

great deal through his discussions with people with

disabilities who are not gamers. Despite the small

number of disabled gamers Matt has met, he is still

excited about his project and its future. He hopes

to raise awareness of gamers with disabilities

worldwide, an awareness which might lead to the

eventual creation of more communities of disabled

gamers. One plan Matt has to promote com-

munity building is the formation of a BarCraft in

Seoul, Korea where disabled attendees could drink

for free. Though this would be a great first step,

Matt is quick to point out that he doesn’t see his

yearlong travels with Watson as the end of the line,

but rather “investigatory work” for what he might

do in the future.

Matt’s team, Tilt Gaming, is based around the

principles of being a competitive, community

oriented team championing the causes of players

with physical disabilities. The team is in its infancy

and Matt has a number of plans for its future. One

of the projects Matt has is the idea of setting up a

team house in Korea for foreigners without a team

to live as they practice in Korea. To pay for the

cost of the house, as well as transportation, cook-

ing, cleaning, and other amenities for players, the

house would produce content such as streams and

other videos. Matt’s worried about the possibility

of a separation forming between Korea and the

West, a problem which existed in Brood War. Matt

sees a house open to foreigners as a way to com-

bat that separation. He believes that it’s possible

to be successful as a foreigner in Korea due to the

open qualifications to compete in tournaments and

the lack of license requirements. By providing an

open house, he could give many players the chance

to practice and qualify for GSL who otherwise could

not afford to without a team.

The challenge currently facing Matt and his ability

to continue to stay in Korea is his ability to pay for

a Personal Care Attendant. Matt needs assistance

with some activities on a daily basis, and the cost of

these PCAs is not covered by his Watson Fellow-

ship.

As I was finishing up my conversation with Matt, he

said something which caught me off guard. He was

discussing his upcoming fundraiser and the people

he had assisting him—everyone from casters and

players to GomTV and Blizzard—and he explained

why he thought the community would support him.

“I symbolize everything the community wants to

believe is true about itself,” he told me. He is living proof that StarCraft 2 is a mental, rather than physical

game. Through his interactions with them, he demonstrates the kind and generous side of all the casters

and players he’s met. And through the StarCraft community’s support for him, we as a community will prove

that despite the gossip and disagreements we may have, we are a great group of people who care deeply

about each other because of the common bond that is StarCraft.

“Despite the small number of disabled gamers Matt has met, he is still excited about his project and its future. He hopes to raise awareness of gamers with disabilities worldwide…”

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GLHF MAGAZINE

PEEPMODE BREAKDOWN

PeepMode is a melee spectator system that is quickly

gaining popularity. GLHF was able to interview its

creator IcculusLizard about his experience developing

content with the SC2 engine, and how it could extend

to full-scale mods.

BY GLHF MAGAZINE

Your project exhibited a unique condition -- it

exceeded its direct competitors in features

and polish, but still could not break through to

the public due to the quirks of the publishing

system. Could you explain how you managed to

findastrategytobreakthroughthishurdle?

PeepMode was directly inspired by Slime’s 1v1

Xel’Naga Caverns. I played that map in early 2011 and

was amazed that some of the features were possible

via modding. I thought it was a great concept but

suffered from user experience issues and lack of

polish. I tried to contact the author to see if I could

suggest improvements or work with him, but I was

not successful, so I set out to see if I could create my

own system. I originally expected development to last

2 to 4 weeks. It ended up lasting more than 60 weeks

(and counting!). During that time, iCJug maps came

out (by Rodrigo), which added some cool features,

but it lacked a smart cam and also had a few UX is-

sues. In general, I strive to create outstanding

work and I don’t generally get caught up in thinking

about “competition” or “popularity.” I just worked on

making the system as good as I could, incorporating

as many features as possible. I knew that when I was

done, it would sort of be in a class of its own. I’m not

trying to sound self-important, it’s just that I

invested much more time than those other authors

did, and I think the product

At a previous Blizzcon, Blizzard made state-

ments that suggested the experience you went

through should perhaps be typical, that a map

maker use a guerrilla marketing campaign to

popularize his map. Do you feel like this is a

realisticroutefortheaverageperson/project?

• Up to 14 players can join a game and partici-

pate in standard 1v1, 2v2 and FFA matches

while spectators watch, bet, chat and learn.

• Many tools are provided for observers includ-

ing an Auto Cam that follows the action,

advanced stats readouts, standard Blizzard

Replay UI, a betting system, a global rating

system and much more.

• Includes graphical team selection and unlock-

able avatars, pets and turf markers.

Peepmode Features

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GLHF MAGAZINE

The new logo for PeepMode is part of a roll-out

of new content, development, and community

interaction.

I was unaware of these statements made by Blizzard,

but it does seem that it is up to the mapmakers

to promote their own maps. In my opinion, the

popularity system used in Bnet 2.0 was not well

designed and makes it difficult for maps that are not

already popular to become popular. This necessitates

web-based promotion. Although I originally tried to

promote my map at sc2mapster.com, very little inter-

est was generated and so I stopped using that site

as a promotional tool. I posted PeepMode details on

TeamLiquid for many months before eventually mak-

ing a breakthrough on reddit.com/r/starcraft when

a gracious user from TL x-posted my PeepMode

Overview video and it was upvoted to the top of the

first page. I then launched a reddit-based campaign

to popularize “PeepMode Metalopolis”, which

was very successful and quickly overtook the other

“obs” maps.

Several things were necessary for this to work:

1. The product had to beat the competition

hands-down in features and polish

2. A critical number of hours (~3,500) needed

to be played on the map within 36 hours to

ensure it made it to the front page on Bnet

3. The product had to be effectively presented,

which I was able to do by creating the

PeepMode Overview video (on YouTube). My

previous promotion videos took the form of

“music videos” as other map makers have done.

I found that my “talking head” / presentation

approach in the Overview video was ultimately

what conveyed the product successfully.

Promotion of the maps took considerable effort and

was, of course, in addition to the hundreds of hours

of development time required to create the system. I

was able to leverage my skills as a web developer to

create PeepMode.com in support of the project and

I plan on leveraging more web-based mechanisms for

supporting the map (such as voting for map rotations

and/or a makeshift laddering system).

The existing StarCraft communities right now

have a large focus on competitive play. Your

map does have some application there as a

practice tool or viewing environment. Did you

experience any waning in community support

over your time pushing your product or could

you see similar projects failing to do the same

irregardlessofquality?

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GLHF MAGAZINE

In general, I feel that PeepMode is still on the rise as

far as popularity goes. I am getting requests to use it

in tourney situations, which I am eager to support. I

am also going to launch “1v1 Obs – Map of the Day”

which will provide a means of rotating the maps on a

daily basis to keep things more interesting. My feeling

is that if that map can make it to the front page, it

has a high potential of remaining one of the most

popular customs. The reason for my confidence is

that PeepMode honors and builds on the standard

melee game, which so many players love already. It is

an attempt to enhance the SC2 eSports experience,

unlike many other customs that set out to create an

entirely new game using the SC2 engine. In a way,

PeepMode is in a class of its own.

With this type of marketing, how important is

timing?Youfocuseddevelopmentduringthe

competitiveoff-season.Didyoupurposelywork

aroundlargeeventtimings?Couldyouseethat

beinganissue?

During 2011, I was focus-

ing on development and

testing and was only

moderately interested in

promotion as I knew that

PeepMode was still in a

pre-beta phase.The only

reason I was promoting

the map in early 2011

on TL was so that I could

get testers to give me

feedback. It is impossible

to test Battle.net functionality on one’s local machine

(computer players do not adequately simulate real

players

on Battle.net), which makes testing a map like

PeepMode extremely difficult. I essentially had

to “put it into the wild” and fix bugs as they were

reported as quickly as I could. This makes for a very

bad marketing campaign since you’re publicizing a

product that isn’t done yet. As a software developer,

it is disappointing and frustrating to face this kind of

testing situation. My general feeling is that marketing

techniques and promotional timing take a back seat

to some of the larger problems of the ecosystem

and that real marketing campaigns can’t even be

attempted until the software development issues

are addressed. Blizzard has promised substantial

improvements to the testing/debugging tools in the

Editor for HotS, so I am looking forward to those

changes. I am also hoping that Bizzard exposes more

of the back-end to modders so that I can fix some

long-running shortcomings with PeepMode features

(such as wireframes not “un-researching” and inability

to see other player’s fog of war vision).

Any mod/map project stands to be dismissed

from having a buggy release. Since making a

community impression has been so key for

yourself,isitdifficulttoacquiretesters?Ifso,

how did you handle this or what issue did it

cause?

My key to success was being extremely responsive

and grateful to early adopters who were my main tes-

ters. These were often groups of friends or clans who

used PeepMode for practice. I am very appreciative

to these fine folks; without their feedback and sup-

port, PeepMode would have died in pre-beta stage. I

also want to thank VYEStone for publishing the map

under the “1v1 Metalopolis + Koth Obs” slot on EU,

which catapulted my de-

bugging and optimization

efforts. This action allowed

me to “take over” the slot

of my main competitor,

thus giving me the advan-

tage of having my map on

the front page on EU. It

is a bit sad that this type

of action was necessary. I

have the utmost respect

for Slime, but his maps

were dropping players

regularly and no fixes were forthcoming, so I didn’t

refuse when Stone (the publisher) requested my map

as a replacement.

PeepMode had quite a long development cycle.

Was this because of the limitations of the map

editor?

I have been a professional programmer for about

ten years now. I work on web applications using Ruby

on Rails and PHP. In the past I used more strongly-

typed languages like C++ and Java. I am accustomed

to enterprise-level IDE’s (or the lightweight power of

TextMate or Sublime text editors), source control (git),

support libraries, documentation, and communities

that are well-informed. None of these exist in the SC2

modding scene.

While sc2mapster.com was very helpful in “getting my

feet wet,” much of the work I did for PeepMode was

either original research (outside of Blizzard of course)

or stumbled upon by asking many questions

from other modders. I’d like to give a shout out to

BasharTeg and grenegg on sc2mapster.com. One

of the biggest hurdles in SC2 modding is the time

it takes to boot up the Editor and to boot up the

Client to do testing. In many cases, I have to upload

a test map to Battle.net and use a combination of

Computer Players, two machines, two accounts, and

friends’ accounts to properly test a new feature. At

~50,000 lines of Trigger code, the editor takes ~40

seconds to validate my Triggers every time I open

a map (and I have a fast machine). This means that

to publish 10 maps across 3 regions, you have to

multiply that by 30 every time I make an update. And

this does not include copy/paste time between maps

and saving the maps, which adds several minutes to

every map update.

Right now it takes me approximately 2 hours just to

publish my maps, which is very frustrating. I also

had to purchase accounts on NA, EU, and SEA, as

I found I could not rely on others to publish maps

in a timely fashion. This cost me over $200 just for

the privilege of publishing a map to other regions.

This process also discourages me from making the

PeepMode map pool any larger than 10 at a time so

that I don’t have to spend hours publishing for every

update.

There are other approaches to publishing, such as

converting Trigger/Data modification to a Library or

Mod, but then the developer is limited in his/her abil-

ity to make updates readily. Since PeepMode is still

in a beta phase, I have not taken that step and will

continue to copy/paste my Triggers to propagate to

other maps. I’d also like to point out that developers

need to be very careful that they open the correct

Editor or else all of their work will be unrecoverable

since all strings (including variable names, function

names, etc) are stored in separate Locales, and when

one Localizes these to publish in all regions, all other

Locales are overwritten. So if you do a bunch of work

in a map on the NA editor, and then open it in EU,

then open it back in NA, all the work you did in EU

is unrecoverable since all your variable names are

gone.

I’d also like to mention that the editors crash on a

regular basis. The undo feature often does not work.

It is impossible to test Battle.net functionality on one’s local machine, which makes testing a map like PeepMode extremely difficult.

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GLHF MAGAZINE

I truly believe this is one of the greatest games ever created and I am honored to be a part of the commu-nity that has sprung up around it.

Orphaned trigger parameters are commonplace. I

can’t use built-in AI anymore because after a cer-

tain amount of code being run, using AI crashes the

game client. All of these problems slow down the

development process.

Most sane developers wouldn’t deal with this. I

must be crazy in love with this game.

Let’s say you had a large scale mod project com-

posed of multiple individuals, perhaps making

large time commitments and risks to produce

somethinggoodtothecommunity.Withsignifi-

cantly higher stakes and pressures involved, do

you see any of the issues with StaCraft 2 as a

publishingtool?

I don’t feel that the current state of modding in

SC2 is supportive of large-scale projects. I vastly

underestimated the time and effort it would take

me to create PeepMode. I originally thought that I

could implement my original vision in 2 to 4 weeks

if I worked hard at it. I am now at week 60 and

counting, and it wasn’t until week 40 or so where

I felt like I had a product that was worthy of large-

scale attention. I estimate it took me 600 hours of

professional-level work to get the system to a beta

stage (by professional-level, I mean I have a lot of

experience as a programmer and system designer,

although I had no previous experience modding

a Blizzard product). Add

other team members

(and take into account the

Mythical Man Month), and

development time gets

to be so long that it just

doesn’t make sense.

You may be thinking ‘Why

would someone do so

much tedious technical

work for free? The reason

is that I truly believe this

is one of the greatest

games ever created and

I am honored to be a part of the community that

has sprung up around it. I also genuinely enjoy

programming for hours by myself on evenings

and weekends. I also happen to have gotten out

of a long-term relationship a little over a year ago,

which enabled me to spend more time in front of

my computer.

I’d like to close with these thoughts: I may have

complaints about Blizzard’s lack of support for

the modding scene and may disagree with some

of their design choices, but the fact remains that

I am very grateful to the

talented folks at Blizzard

for creating such a won-

derful game and to all the

players who recognize it

as such. I am also grateful

that Blizzard provided a

means for modding the

game, even if they don’t

provide documentation or

support. I will always have

fond memories of the

hundreds of hours I spent

developing PeepMode on

monitors 1 and 2 while

watching MLG, IPL, NASL, GSL, Day9, and SOTG

out of the corner of my eye on monitors 3 and 4.

I also look forward to years of continued develop-

ment and support for PeepMode; I’m not going

anywhere, folks.

GLHF MAGAZINE

STARCRAFT 2 MOD TOOLSAn abandoned playground?By megabuster

StarCraft 2 has always felt a little lonelier

than it needed to.

Sometimes it is easy to not completely notice.

Amidst a vivid competitive scene full of heroic

struggle, and significant intrigue the average

StarCraft fan and user has many distractions avail-

able to them. If you glance away from the shining

lights long enough to analyze, there is some rise for

concern. The source of this loneliness lies in the na-

ture of the user experience offered by the current

incarnation of Battle.net. 2.0, as its known.

Many discussions have been had on why exactly

StarCraft 2’s online arena is not an ideal sequel to

its predecessors. Certainly by now, even those not

present to experience a vintage Blizzard multi-

player community have been brought in the fold

on its inadequacies. If you hadn’t encountered this

topic before in summation Brood War’s battle.net

was a favorite restaurant, full of your best mates,

a roaring fire nested in an brick chimney, and the

smell of your favorite meal in the air. StarCraft 2’s

user experience is a sterile doctor’s waiting room,

your chair is moist, the man next to you is coughing

up… something. We can move on from pointing out

the same flaws.

I’d like to pose a question for the purpose of il-

lustration.

Had the Brood War and WarCraft 3 battle.net’s

suffered the same issues as Battle.net 2.0, where

would the competitive StarCraft scene be today?

My perspective is that it certainly wouldn’t be as

rich and entertaining. So much of the evolution

behind the character of the scene happened in

those old hallowed halls. If you enjoy the history

between the personalities, the culture behind the

competition, the overall sense of community, they

wouldn’t be the same without the meeting grounds

the online component of StarCraft 2’s predecessors

provided.

The foundation of StarCraft culture happened or-

ganically and is a credit to its players, but it needed

a fertile environment for that to occur in, which

was a success of its developers at the time. The

future of the culture isn’t in peril however, certainly

the boom of secondary communities such as Team

Liquid or Reddit with StarCraft 2’s beta and release

have given it an environment to grow in.

StarCraft should extend beyond competition and

eSports though, its important for its overall liveli-

hood. Iin fact nearly ever title in the storied history

of Blizzard RTS has played key parts in another

track, that is the game developmental scene. This

is the side of StarCraft which has been most threat-

ened by a tepid battle.net iteration. In just a single

generation removed from Warcraft 3, Blizzard RTS

has moved from an important, fertile development

platform a shadow of its former self.

Every cultural movement has a variety of key des-

tinations where the story began. And in retrospec-

tion Brood War/WarCraft 3’s custom map systems

were to the mid- late 2000s indie gaming boom

as CBGB’s was to the punk rock movement. These

systems are now a locale of legends. Simple design

tools and pre-made art assets were made available

to a new generation who had instant access to a

wide multiplayer playerbase.

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GLHF MAGAZINE

Beyond that commercialization wasn’t even so

much of a thought, there was no way to speculate

really on profiting from your creations, it was sim-

ply part of the agreement working in the medium.

It was the equivalent of “Being all about the music,

man”. Many things were also equivalently open

source. The lack of sophistication in encryption,

and its general indesirability for reasons other than

ego, made many projects freely reviewable, allow-

ing others to easily pop open your code and learn

from what you had done. Projects bore children,

copies, and knockoffs all spinning the original con-

cepts. Sometimes this caused improvement, some-

times it trashed the orginal’s vision, equivalent to

modern music remix practice. These elements in

coincidence created something special, a unique,

strong, free, pseudo open-source development

platform.

This allowed creators to well, create. Imagination

was abound, and it was oftentimes quite easy to

cobble together a game quickly and get it in the

hands of some random strangers to test with.

Usually a very rewarding and fun process for the

designer as well as the player, making sure both

parties explored the system beyond a single experi-

ence.

The impact of this system rippled deeply into the

mainstream gaming community. Luminaries of

battle.net such as Lurker Defence and Defense

of the Ancients gave way for entire genres, that is

Tower Defence and the MOBA/Action-RTS.

Now its worth noting that one thing gaming in gen-

eral is fairly poor at is crediting its own inspirations,

their are career historians making note of this

sort of thing. As such following the genealogy of

specific games can oftentimes be difficult. For true

history fiends some of the earliest exposed cases

of these genres can hark back to games known

as Rampart and Herzog Zwei, but I will leave that

reading to the interested. Nonetheless the rapid

development and exposition of these games in

battle.net caused explosive growth in interest and

innovation in the genres.

Over an exorbitant amount of time this interest

eventually attracted professional development.

Much like record executives licensing punk rock,

allowing it to go mainstream from the night club

circuit. Game developers made entries into various

genres which had evolved on battle.net exposing

what was once in independent and underground,

perhaps without the exploitation of its music world

equivalent. The influence is

indisputable. Tower defence

gametypes have been a

killer APP for mobile gaming,

becoming hugely important

in its popularization and

acceptance. While MOBA/

Action-RTS’s are now the

realm of millions of players

worldwide, even presenting

a blooming sister sport to

their RTS sibling.

By no consider the offerings I’ve mentioned an

exhaustive list, in fact the breadth of available cus-

tom maps and mods to previous Blizzard titles is

perhaps the most astonishing quality, beyond even

the potential in certain luminaries. Anyone who

has spent time in that space probably has their

own personalized list of favorites. Just as anyone

who has searched the corridors of battle.net 2.0 for

similar spoils could tell you of shocking opposite

state of the scene now.

It’s an unusual condition. With StarCraft 2 the tools

are hypothetically sharper than ever, in fact what

is available should empower creators more than

ever. Scripting which finally approaches a realized

coding language, opportunity to import fully cus-

tom assets such as art, sound, or effect, exportable

libraries, and more.

Of course there are technical issues that currently

make operation much more difficult than ideal,

but the age of the platform and promised fixes can

excuse this to a degree. Most importantly what has

departed is the freedom to demonstrate a project

on the open field. Battle.net 2.0’s lobby system is

restricted to a popularity system akin to what is

scene in many modern digital storefronts.

The move to the popularity system is built to

eventually hold a com-

mercial infrastructure.

That is something

called the Blizzard

Arcade, an eventual

market which could

offer creator`s an

opportunity to com-

mercialize their indie

projects themselves.

The promise of this

service is something that from the onset, alongside

the power of the SC2 editor, and the historical

allure of developing for battle.net I`ve mentioned

previously should have poised SC2 very specially as

a development platform.

Starcraft could feasibly be a preeminent mod tool

in the space of independent videogame creation as

a whole. It should extend beyond strong conven-

tional top down capable engines like Unity for its

readily available playerbase and ease of market-

ting. It would outclass other free popular platforms

like GameMaker and BYOND in sophistication. As

well its pedigree for indie development and softly

available commercialization options would set it

ahead of FPS oriented environments like UDK, Half

Life, or anything conceivably down the pipeline.

The lack of an expensive developer license would

be an absolute plus as well.

Battle.net 2.0’s lobby system is restricted to a popularity system akin to what is scene in many modern digital storefronts.

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GLHF MAGAZINE

THE FUTURE OF STARCRAFT AS AN ESPORTHas it had its fifteen minutes of fame?

its growth has been incredible. Since 2010, there were

tournaments in the beta and VODs of games released

on YouTube, but there was no real way for the mass-

es to be exposed to Starcraft 2. The Brood War scene

still dominated a lot of the Starcraft community and

many people were skeptical about who would switch

over to Starcraft 2 and whether or not it would be

worth it. Even the names seen in beta tournaments

were all mostly established professionals in Brood

War. At a financial standpoint, it did not make sense

to switch over to Starcraft 2 as it was too new and

as a result, the number of Starcraft 2 supporters was

confined to a niche community.

Fast-forward one year to 2011, a year that many

called the “year of e-sports”. Not only did 2011 mark

the first full year of competitive Starcraft, it set the

standards that we have come to expect from Starcraft

as a spectator sport. The year was filled with constant

tournament coverage around the world. MLG, GSL,

IPL, Dreamhack, Homestory Cup, IEM, and Blizzcon

all provided us with countless hours of entertain-

ment. Tournaments were being hosted at least every

month and as often as every other week. From a

spectator point of view, we had everything we could

possibly want. But aside from watching our favorite

players duking it out on the battlefield, something

more important was happening behind the scenes.

Production crews, casters, and tournament organizers

were actually responding to the community. Take

MLG for instance, we all remember the disaster that

was MLG Dallas and if the same performance had

been repeated at Columbus, I’m sure MLG would not

have as much support as it does now. If the organiz-

ers of these tournaments did not try to fix the prob-

lems that plagued their streams or events, Starcraft as

an e-sport would cease to grow.

2011 was also a year of streams, in terms of the sheer

numbers of players streaming their ladder games. Ap-

parently streaming is the cool thing to do nowadays,

even the Koreans are getting into it. It gives players

that extra little bit of income and gives the viewers

BY DAVID LO

Considering the fact that Starcraft 2 will be two years old in just a few months,

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GLHF MAGAZINE

a chance to watch their favorite players outside of a

tournament setting. It also increases the fanbase of

Starcraft 2 in general in that people who have friends

that are interested in playing can watch a Day[9]

Daily or watch Dragon doing crazy shenanigans on

stream. The great thing about streams is that they

aren’t confined to a certain date. They’re on basically

all day every day except tournament weekends.

2012. A whole new year. Is the growth of Starcraft

going to stagnate? The short answer is no, but here’s

why:

1. RELATABILITY

Starcraft 2 as a game is not only aesthetically pleas-

ing, it is quite easy to pick up. There’s plenty of

guides to help people get into the game plastered all

over Reddit and Youtube. But there’s also the excite-

ment factor. People who play the game can appreciate

the incredible amount of skill the pros showcase.

The audience also gets to see the entire game unfold

while the players themselves can only guess what will

happen next. This creates a sense of anticipation in

that we as spectators think about scenarios that could

happen or will happen. The anticipation continues

to grow and so does the excitement. What makes

Starcraft 2 such a great spectator sport is the fact that

the audience can relate to what is going on. Whether

it’s eagerly anticipating a hidden nydus or cring-

ing at a whole base full of harvesters getting nuked,

Starcraft provides a lot of entertainment both visually

and mentally.

2. COMMUNITY

No, not the show on NBC, although we sometimes

get carried away with drama. As a community, we are

one of the most helpful and friendly groups around.

Pro-gamers actually interact with their fans on a daily

basis, whether it is at meet and greets or through

stream chat. While there are the occasional trolls and

ragers on ladder, most people would love to offer

advice on how to improve and possibly offer to be

practice partners. At the end of the day, it is the cohe-

sion we have as a community that allows us to de-

velop connections with other players and profession-

als that strengthens the foundation of Starcraft as an

e-sport. What I think is amazing about the Starcraft

community is how vocal and helpful the community

is. If something is wrong with a tournament or with a

player’s behavior, rest assured it will be heard. While

it might lead to potential drama, it always dies down

and at the end of the day we all learn from it. The fact

that mistakes do not continue to repeat themselves

proves the fact Starcraft has the potential to continue

growing as an e-sport.

3. HISTORY

If you listen to State of the Game at all, one of the

things that frequently comes up is how to improve

on tournaments. With the sheer number of tourna-

ments that have happened over the past year, we

have begun to see story-lines develop. The history

of MMA, the rivalry between Hero and Puma, the

American hope Stephano. With every tournament,

players develop even deeper story lines and spectators

cheer for their favorite players whether it is based on

skill, personality, or previous matches. With these

story-lines comes a greater fanbase for the pro-

players. After Homestory Cup IV, the spotlight was

on Grubby, the incredibly mannered protoss from

the Netherlands. After IEM Kiev, the spotlight was

on Kas even though he didn’t win the tournament,

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his run was incredible. What Starcraft 2 lacks iin

comparison to Brood War is this history. Brood War

players would spend months training for an MSL or

OSL and in that time, fans were anxiously waiting to

see their favorite players battle it out. Now Starcraft 2

is nowhere near as rich in history as Brood War, but

with so much coverage, we as spectators are exposed

to players more frequently and our opinions of them

begin to develop. This history helps the growth of

Starcraft 2 in that more fans will tune in to watch

their favorite players in hopes that they make a deep

run or see the beginnings of a rivalry develop.

4. SKILL DISPARITY

When I say skill disparity, I don’t mean that there is

a huge gap between top Koreans and top foreigners,

it is quite the opposite. If tournament results have

proven anything, it is that foreigners have what it

takes to conquer the Korean powerhouses. Compared

to the Korean dominated Brood War scene, foreign-

ers have proven that they can compete. Huk winning

MLG over MC, Naniwa tearing Nestea a new one in

the Blizzard Cup, and Stephano’s win over Lucky in

IPL 4 are just a few of the examples of foreigners tak-

ing down Koreans. But what does it mean? It means

that the foreigner community in America, Canada,

France, Sweden, Ukraine, and many other countries

are going to have a vested interest in Starcraft 2

namely because their players represent their country.

It also creates a sort of David and Goliath situation in

which fans want to root for the underdog. If the for-

eigner wins its an incredible upset but if the Korean

wins, it is to be expected. Either way, it provides a

reason for people to watch while in the process creat-

ing a more enthusiastic community.

If you want more proof, just take a look at the num-

bers. On average, the most popular streamers have a

couple thousand people watching them at any point

in time, and it is sure to grow. MLG reports that

attendance records are being broken at every single

event they hold. Starcraft 2 is making headlines in the

news in America, Sweden, and Germany. What we

need now is time. Time for all of this to unfold. I’m

not saying that Starcraft 2 will become mainstream

overnight, but the factors that are influencing its

development are strong advocates of it. Ultimately

it comes down to the community and what we are

doing to fix problems with tournaments or even

what we’re doing to spread the awesomeness that is

Starcraft.

“With every tournament, players develop even deeper story lines and spectators cheer for their favorite players whether it is based on skill, personality, or pre-vious matches.”

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A roach will survive a nuke if it is in the outer radius.

MISCELLANEOUS FACTS

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While you play the Liberation Day mission on Mar Sara you will see a STOP sign when you move Raynor and his troops to East. Near the sign you can see 8 crashed vehicles in a chain accident.

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INTERVIEWSDaisyPrimeAndrea Chang

KellyMILKIESWilliam Dahlstrom

ThorZaINChristian Hanner

Gosu.RumDavid Litts

Up and Coming Pro-Gamers

DaisyPrimeby Andrea Chiang

Pro gamers like Tt eSPORT’s White-Ra and

Evil Genius’ HuK seem to have effortlessly climbed to the top of the StarCraft 2 scene as some of the most talented and popular players of the game. They started playing during the beta and became well known for their prowess and play style by dominating the tournaments they were invited to. Now, there seem to be so many more people qualified to play professionally, especially with the introduction of the Grand-master league on each server. So how do you find people who are truly qualified? How can a small-

-time gamer make it to the big leagues?

There is a relatively unknown gamer who is on a quest to be-come a professional in order to spread awareness. Winning events helps pro gamers show up on the radar, but the most important and popular events are often live, such as the Major League Gaming Pro Circuit. FXO’s sixteen year-old Zerg player Leenock demonstrated just how quickly a gamer could become famous. He tore through all of his opponents in the open bracket and defeated NaNiwa to take first place at MLG Providence. Having a char-ismatic personality can also help you gain viewership and popularity, as QxG.Destiny and EG.iNcontroL demonstrate on their streams. We hope to continue featuring play-ers on the rise, and note players that the community should keep an eye on. And so without further ado, we will be introducing our first featured player.

His name is Jong Hyuk Lee. He is a Korean Protoss player on Prime, and the teammate of the legendary MarineKing. In-game, he goes by Daisy. DaisyPrime is a very friendly guy who tries to interact with his viewers as much as he can, though he speaks limited English. He is cur-rently trying to find a foreign team in order to travel to and compete in foreign tournaments. In the inter-view we conducted with him, he explained more about his play style and his goals for StarCraft 2.

When in a tournament, or match, what types of strategies do you useoften?

Against Protoss, I send a scout and get a cybernetics core. It’s quickest for me to get 4 warpgates. For a slower build, I’ll go the safer way of getting up 3 gates, robotics facility, and then twilight council. Against Zerg, if it’s on a map where double nexus is possible, then I go double nexus without question, and maps where it’s not I usually fake going

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Credit: DiMano from TL

double nexus and then cancel. I’ll build 3 gates with sentries or 1 gate with sentries if I have to. After double nexus, I’ll get a stargate up and then after sending a scout, I adapt my game according to my opponent. Against Terran, I’ll send a probe scout and if I see he’s not doing a 2 Rax cheese or an all-in, I’ll go 1gate, 1 zealot, 2 stalkers, and double nexus. After that I’ll gradu-ally work up to 3 gates and get up my robotics facility, then just adapt to my opponent’s play.

What are the reasons for wanting tojoinaforeignteam?

It can be hard to compete in foreign tournaments. In Korea, the GSL is the only tournament scene, and only the star players get invites to foreign tournaments through it. I

also want to learn English because it is a required subject in Korea. For the most part, Korean players don’t get paid a salary right now. The funding is really bad. So basically, I want to join a foreign team to com-pete in lots of foreign tournaments and because I want to learn English as well.

As a SC2 player, do you a desire for further progress and achieve-ments?Whatplansdoyouhavein order to achieve these goals forSC2?

Yes, I have a lot. A while ago, I received an invite to CPL and went to China to play there. I heard the deafening roar of the crowd and felt a shiver go up my spine. I want more fans so I can experience that feeling again. My plan is to get good

tournament results through lots of practice and to join a foreign team…Hahaha.

Thank you for your time. Are there any last comments you wouldliketoadd?

I feel good after doing this inter-view! I’m sad that I don’t have very many viewers on my stream, but even so, I’m very grateful to the viewers who always watch me.

If you would like to check out Dai-syPrime and encourage him as he works towards breaking into the spotlight, check out his Twitch TV/DaisyPrime stream and Twitter@DaisyPrime.

(See next page for Korean translation)

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Credit: From Daisy’s Facebook

DaisyPrime Interview (Korean)

Effie: 대회나 경기에 나갈때, 어떤전략을 자주 사용하나요?

Daisy: vs p 정찰을 가서 사이버네틱스 코어가 제가 월등히 빠르면 4차관을 하고, 비슷하거나 제가 느리면 안전하게 3게이트->로보틱스->시타델을 올리는 편이에요

Daisy: vs z 더블 넥서스가 가능한 맵은 무조건 더블넥서스를 하고 불가능한 맵은 보통 끄고 플레이를 해요, 해야될 경우에는 3게이트 파수기멀티나 1게이트 파수기멀티를 사용합니다. 더블넥 이후에는 우주관문을 올려 정찰을 한 이후에 상대방 플레이에 맞춰가며 게임을 합니다

Daisy: vs t 프로브 서치로 상대방의 2배럭 치즈 올인이나 초반올인러쉬가 아닌것을 보면 1게

이트 1질럿 2추적자 더블넥서스를 하는편이고 그 뒤는게이트를 3개까지 늘리고 로보틱스를 올리고 상대방에가 맞춰가는 편이에요

Effie: 해외팀에 입단하고 싶은 이유는 뭡니까?

Daisy: 한국은 GSL 하나만 있고 해외대회 같은 경우에는 스타급 플레이어들만 초청을 받기 때문에 많은 대회를 참가하기 어렵습니다. 그리고 한국에선 영어가 거의 필수기 때문에 영어를 배우고 싶은 마음도 있구요, 지금 대부분의 한국팀 선수들은 급여를 지금 받지 못하고 있어요 자금력이 굉장히 안좋은 편이에요. 정리 하자면 많은 대회를 참가하고 싶고 영어를 배우고 싶은것이내요

Effie: 스타2 선수로서, 발전과 성적의 욕심은 있나요? 스타2

에 대한 목표를 위해 어떤 계획을 세웠나요?

Daisy: 네 많아요. 예전에 CPL이란 대회에 초청을 받아서 중국에 갔는데 그곳에서 게임을 하는데 함성소리가 엄청났고 전율이 일어났어요. 그때 그 기분을 다시 느끼고 싶고 많은사람들이 저를 알아줬으면 좋겠어요, 계획은 해외 팀에 입단해서 많은 연습을 통해 대회 성적을 좋게 받는것 인것 같내요... ㅋㅋㅋ

Effie: 시간 내줘서 감사합니다. 마직막으로 하고싶은 말은?

Daisy: 인터뷰까지 하게 되고 기분이 좋내요. 스트림에서 아직 쓰레드로 되지도 않았고 시청자도 조금 적어서 슬프긴 하지만 그래도 저를 꾸준히 시청해주는 분들께 감사드립니다.

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She does it all. SC2, WoW, CS1.6, Rock-

band, DotA 2, HoN. She’s a player, com-mentator, and a Zerg. KellyMILKIES everone. What got you into gaming in the firstplace?

I started when I was five. My dad was really into video games, like Sega Saturn cartridge kind, Atari, GameCube type, so I got into these games really young. When I grew

The Multi-talentedKellyMILKIESBy William Dahlström

up, I just happened to have high school sweethearts boyfriend types who plays games, really smart. I’ve always loved nerds.

Could you walk us through a typi-caldayforyou?

Right now, when not travelling as much: I wake up, drink very hot black coffee, brush my teeth, have orange juice while checking e-mails, replying Skype messages about work that I had missed, read a few gaming forums, check a few social forums, start replying e-mails and non-work related Skype messages, continue conversation and work for the whole day, optimally spending one or two hours at the end of the day watching TV shows/anime, play some guitar with my boyfriend, play

some games, and go to bed.Next day, same.

What was your favourite part of castingfortheGSL?

It’s all about the backstage baby! During GSL, before every single day it starts, everyone has to go at least an hour before to get make up and hair done, including all the boys. So all of us will be in this make up/hairstyling room sitting on plastic chairs, all Korean, English, players, commentators—chilling, busy on phone, being awkward and gossip-ing.

Before I came, the makeup/hair-styling ladies only had the Korean female commentator Lee Hyun Joo and she usually had the same style.

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Credit: DeL from teamliquid.net forums

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Me, being the newbie, unwillingly became their tester for all crazy K-Pop related hairstyle/makeup. I think if you watch the season when I was casting again, you can see I had a different style every day. I was too shy to say no and also curi-ous to what they could think of. To-wards the end I even came in with pictures of Hollywood actresses’ hairstyles and they obliged happily to trying some crazy stuff out. While all this happening, them yelling at me in Korean and me speaking ex-citedly in Konglish (Korean-English pidgin), everyone is filing in and out of the room. Most people tendrf to leave us be, some watched warily, and others just start coming over and talking together as well. That was where I mostly first met all the foreign players who were playing at that time. Loner was really shy even though I spoke to him in Mandarin, Nada was really friendly, that was also the first time I met Chris (EG HuK) in real life and spend many fun times with. Also met Jinro and Ret in the backroom. I always tried

to get the hair stylist to change Chris’s hairstyle. One time he said I could tell them to spike his hair up like Super Saiyan. When the day came, he chickened out and re-fused to say yes when they asked if they could do it!

Whenyoufirststartedcasting,you received a lot of criticism. Doesthisstilltendtohappen?Howdidyoudealwithitbefore?Howdoyoudealwithitnow?

I think the general shock of Tasto-sis not being on every single GSL SC2 match for the first time since it started had a lot to do with the massive amount of criticism. This doesn’t happen as much anymore. Before, I think I’ve done a few things wrong. At the start I got really upset by a lot of it, and I wishthat I learnt sooner that ignoring it and listening only to my mentors was enough. I think the gossip and rumors affect-ed me more than criticism. I hated dealing with unnecessary drama. Now I usually just laugh about

almost all of it. Mostly it is thanks to me recognizing the people I can trust and learn from who has been advising me wisely along the way.

Who’s your favourite person to castwithandwhy?

Every person that I have ever casted with before. Shout out to all the boys and girls whom I’ve worked with before from start till now! Each person I have casted with had many traits that I pick up (the good ones), and the ones that I get wary of thus avoid (the bad habits). I am still improving and learning every time I cast.

You’re currently working as the community manager for Own3D.tv. What has been the most ex-citing or interesting part of your job?

The most exciting part has been getting the job itself. At the start

“...no one mentions that working in eSports means no time for eSports. I haven’t had much time to play...!”

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Credit: ESL

Credit: DivinO from teamliquid.net forums

of 2011, I promised myself that if I didn’t get a real career in eSports, I was going to just stop and help with my family business. I felt really lucky and happy to get an offer for the job in Own3D. The most inter-esting part is how no one mentions that working in eSports means no time for eSports. I haven’t had much time to play games for the last three months!

You are of course best known for your work pertaining to StarCraft II, but what other games do you play?

I used to compete in CS1.6, then DotA for a while. Played WoW most-ly PvP for a year, Rock Band, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, then SC2 and now Dota 2 as well.

Wheredoyouseeyourselfinfiveyearsfromnow?

Owning a professional gaming team. Hopefully by then eSports has become one of the biggest sports in the world and America has a new “Favorite Pastime.”

It’s still quite uncommon to see female gamers in the competitive gaming scene. How can we, as a community, help get more girls involved?

Stop shitting on them. Stop blowing things up. The community tends to often overreact to any news about a female. Be it relationship drama, being picked up by pro teams, commentators, laptop stealers, pro players. Ever heard of, “If you have nothing good to say, don’t say any-thing?” In the community, the rule of the thumb should at least be, “If you have nothing constructive to say, don’t say anything.”

Most girls are actually scared of breaking into become a competi-tive player because of all the trolling and bashing.

What do you feel is the biggest obstacleforfemalegamers?

The misunderstanding that most female gamers get what they do because they are female. Many female gamers end up having to work twice as hard or more as male gamers because they are forced to “prove” themselves.

Do you think in a few years fe-male professional gamers could becomecommon?

At the rate the eSports and casual community is going at the moment, I honestly doubt we can use the word common to describe it.

What would you tell other aspir-ing female gamers about the stigma generally associated with onlinegaming?

Video games are really really fun. It is definitely one of the best hobbies

to pick up for any girl. Just remem-ber if you ever want to go pro then be ready for whatever might hap-pen and remember you should be looking to gain respect more than the want of gaining attention.

If you could say leave one mes-sage to the girls who are inter-ested in the gaming scene, what wouldyousay?

Hi girls! You and I are not much dif-ferent. I like most of the things you do too—I go shopping, eat way too much coconut yogurt, and spend too much time looking at pictures of Ryan Gosling. But on top of that, I love playing video games, too. It’s a great way to spend your time, whether it’s by yourself or with your friends.

I have made so much friends and met so many of them all over the world. I hope to one day meet you too!

“Stop blowing things up. The community tends to often overreact to any news about a female.”

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Credit: dota.uuu9.com

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ThorZaIN Speaks His MindBy Christian Hanner

This month we went up close with 21-year-old Swedish Terran player

Marcus “ThorZaIN” Eklöf.

Marcus is an former professional Warcraft 3 player who made the switch to Starcraft 2 during its beta phase. Marcus is mostly known for

his 4-3 win over NaNiwa in the 3rd Team Liquid StarLeague finals. During Marcus’s stay in Korea he received the nickname “Spoon Terran” for the slow methodical way he plays out his games. In this interview we get to know ThorZaIN and his thoughts on the future of Starcraft 2.

First of all, nice to meet you. How areyoudoingtoday?

I’m doing fine. Thank you.

How did you get the ID, “ThorZaIN?”

I don’t exactly remember. It was during my Counter-Strike days. I just remember that the nickname that I used before Thorzain hap-pened to mean something in Japanese, so I changed it. I don’t know why i ended up with Thorzain

Credit: IPL3

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though. It doesn’t have anything to do with the Norse god of thunder, Thor, which many people seem to think is the case.

Whereareyoucurrentlystaying?

In Sweden. I still live with my par-ents.

What does your practice sched-ulelooklike?Isitallstreamed?

Haha no, I don’t stream it all. I think I only streamed like five times. It would be strange if I played so little. It depends on the day. But I gener-ally play maybe 4-5 hours per day.

Doyoupracticeonallladders?

No, I play almost exclusively on the European server.

How would you compare it to the Koreanladder?

It’s easier but it still provides a lot of practice. The quality of the top players are almost the same (Korea still ahead though), but the quantity of good players is much bigger in Korea

If you have a set opponent in a tournament, what do you do to prepare, and who do you usually practicewith?

I would practice a style suited to do

well against the player I have to pre-pare for, but also take into consid-eration things as how he thinks that I play and such. About my practice partners, I basically just ask anyone that is online of the desired race. There are too many to actually list them.

Do you plan on going back to Korea to train more and perhaps qualifyforCodeA?

I don’t have any immediate plans

on going back, but I would like to go back sometime in the future. I like Korea very much, it’s a very nice country.

We’ve seen you play mech, bio, and marine/tank in TvT. Which styledoyoupreferandwhy?

I prefer marine/tank. It has the most flexibility and works well vs everything. Bio almost only works against mech, but since i generally don’t have any problem with mech with marine/tank I don’t use bio at all TvT. Sometimes I can mix it up with mech however.

Do you feel the same way about TvZ?

I think that marine/tank is the best, but also that mech is too unex-plored for a game that has been out for so long. I think that if both mech and marine/tank would be of the same exact strength, I would play mech in TvZ, and marine/tank in TvT.

Credit: R1CH from teamliquid.net forums

Credit: MLG Winter Arena

“Iprefermarine/tank.Ithasthemostflex-ibility and works well vs everything.”

What is your favorite match-up atthemomentandwhy?

I think that all match ups are equal-ly fun at the moment. They all have something appealing. For example in TvZ you can basically never die until brood lords come out, unless you fuck up (though you can be behind). I know the TvP match up quite well. TvT is fun when there is a lot of running around with ma-rine/tank and trading armies while macro-ing like crazy behind it.

You’ve been to one MLG. Can we expect to see you at more this year?

To be honest, I have no clue. I guess I will go to at least one, but that’s just a guess. As of now I’ve no plans to go but no plans not to go either.

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As a former WarCraft 3 player, what do you think about Moon committing to Starcraft 2 full-timeandjoiningFnatic?

I’m very excited about it. I wasn’t really a huge fan of him in WC3, but I think that he has what it takes to become great at SC2. Also, I lived and practiced with him in the WeMadeFox house when I was in Korea. Even though he was mostly playing WC3 at the time he still was on of the best players I played against during my month in Korea.

In another interview you said you would keep studying if Starcraft 2 didn’t work out. Where do you

think you would be today if you weren’taStarcraft2progamer?

Well I would still be studying, I don’t know what or where though. There’s not much more that I could guess to what I would be doing.

What are your goals for your progamingcareerthisyear?

I don’t really have any big goals. Just take it as it comes.

What unit are you most excited about in Heart of the Swarm, and why?The battle hellions. I am just excited to how they will be used. Also, I think that the tempest will be a very interesting unit. I think that mech might become too strong though.

Why do you think mech might becometoostrong?Becausetheadditionofnewunits?

Because every new terran unit is a factory unit.

Well, thank you so much for the interview ThorZaIN. Any last shout outs for your fans and sponsors?

Thanks for the interview. Also a shoutout to Mousesports and our sponsors. Razer, GeIL, Medion, Intel, Sansibar, and Thortech.

Photo Credits: PUT HERE

Credit: Silverfire from the teamliquid.net forums

Credit: R1CH from the teamliquid.net forums

“...battle hellions. I am just excited to how they will be used...I think that mech might become too strong though.”

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Photo Credits: PUT HERE

On Planet Xil you will play The Dig mission. You will gain access to a laser and you will be asked to use it to dig for an artifact. If you zoom in the view you can see the control panel of the laser. One of these screens shows the blue screen of death from Windows 98.

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Interview with GoSu.RuMBy David Litts

Could you state your name and your position with It’s Gosu?

My name is Scott Ball. In-game I go by GoSuRuM. I handle business development

and team management. I guess I don’t really have an exact title but these are the

roles I am responsible for.

So what are your day to day responsibilities with the team?

They vary every day, generally they consist of reaching out to and speaking with

companies we are interested in working with. I also deal with the players on a

regular basis, anything from handling their invites to events, to making sure they

are training the way they are supposed to be. The main thing that never changes

day to day is the communication, the most important and regular part of my job

is having a constant flow of open communication between my peers, as well as

companies we are speaking with. I also make our clan war lineups and take care of

an issues that have come up. On top of managing the SC 2 team, I also manage our

Dota 2 team as well as oversee the HoN and LoL teams.

What are you feelings on how It’s Gosu grew in 2011?

I think overall it was a great year for us. We could have done better in some ways,

but overall I am very satisfied with this last year. We are a really new organization

when it comes to team in professional eSports, we are also into multiple games.

The fact that now many people know who we are, is wonderful. I do know for

a fact that 2012 is going to be twice as big for It’s Gosu as 2011 was. People can

expect big things from our organization and our players this year.

How big was the acquisition of Gretorp for It’s Gosu?

Having Gretorp come on board was huge for us. Gretorp is a good friend of mine

and someone that has the ability to analyze and dissect games at a very high level.

This is a wonderful thing to have because he can actually show the players what

they are doing wrong, then help them to understand it to improve. After all, one of

the most overlooked things is not just knowing your mistakes, but actually under-

standing why it is a mistake. Gretorp is also someone that has a great deal of respect

It’s Gosu started out as an eSports community site, hosting tournaments, forums and publishing articles articles. In June of 2011, It’s Gosu acquired ALL4ONE Gaming and formed It’s Gosu eSports, fielding teams in League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth and StarCraft 2. Players like Kyhol, dde, ViBE and HwangSin make up It’s Gosu’s 14-man StarCraft 2 roster, all coached by caster/player Gretorp. I had the pleasure of interviewing It’s Gosu’s team manager, Scott “GoSuRuM’’ Ball.

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from our players, which I think is very important

for a coach to have. Really, I can’t say enough about

Andre, I am just so happy to have him here.

How do you feel It’s Gosu will continue to grow in 2012?

I think our players will have even better results then

we did last year. Last year at pretty much every MLG

we put 2-4 people from the Open Bracket into the

championship bracket. Our best finish was WBC,

who cracked the top 20. That being said, this year

all of our players aren’t looking for top 20 anymore.

They are looking to push into the top 10 and really

get themselves out there to the community. On top of

that, we have an incredibly talented Dota 2 team that

is competing with all the best teams in the world. We

also have a HoN team that is doing the same thing,

attending Dreamhack and showing that they are one

of the best on a regular basis. We are running a ton of

events, whether it be HoN, Dota 2, SC2, or LoL we

are creating events that people will want to tune into

and participate in. I expect that with all the hard work

every one puts in here, the growth is exponential this

year.

Will It’s Gosu become more competitive in 2012 at major tourneys?

I don’t really know how to answer this question other

then by just saying yes. We were competitive last

year. We will only be showing better results this year

then we did in the previous. Our motto is to always

be improving, never declining, never being content

with the current level we are putting out. We are also

planning on attending more international events this

year.

Which player on It’s Gosu will have the most impact this year?

Ha ha, I can’t answer this question at all. We have so

many players between the games we are competing in

that all work so hard. I think all of them will one one

way or another be making an impact on the eSports

seen this year.

What’s your team to watch in 2012?

It’s Gosu. Duh. Just kidding. I think there are two

teams: Light and Vile. Both of them are training

really hard and have many very underrated players.

Light has Xeris behind them to and I don’t really

know of anything Xeris has done that hasn’t done

really well. So I’d say keep an eye on Light and Vile.

They are both incredible teams that deserve more

credit than they get.

Whats something you would like the community to know about It’s Gosu that the majority of us aren’t aware of?

Just how much we care. All of our players and staff

put so much effort towards becoming bigger and

better each day. It’s incredible. Keep us on your radar

and please cheer us on when we make some big

things happen. The amount of heart that is poured

into everything we do is really amazing.

If you could fantasy draft anyone to It’s Gosu right this minute who would it be?

Wow, probably Hero. Hero is one of my favorite

players and I had the honor of getting to know him at

the NASL finals this year. He is someone that handles

himself very well, is an amazing player and a fan

favorite. He is so humble and puts forth a great deal

of effort to his play. One thing I will never forget, is

after he lost in the finals, he actually apologized to

me for not winning, purely because he eliminated

HwangSin, one of my players. That just showed me

how much character he really has.

Once again thanks for taking the inter-view, any shout outs?

I want to say thank you to our sponsors, MAXX In-

tegration and MAXFrag. Also thank you to all of our

players and staff. Without them, we are nothing. Ev-

ery person here plays such a key role to our success.

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Many conveniences in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty that were not avail-able in StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War were actually carried over from WarCraft III, rather than separately developed

MISCELLANEOUS FACTS

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Credit: Starcraft 2 fansite kit

STRATEGYLadder AnxietyConquering Ladder Anxiety and Becoming a Better GamerOn Time in SC2

How To Get The Most Out Of Your OverlordsWhy you should never forget to research - Combat shield

Joseph ChenNick Ippolito

Stephen Chiu

Jonathan BaldwinMark Jean

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Frustrating.

“The horror, the horror!”

Ladder anxiety

I don’t care about what terrify-

ing sights you’ve seen during your

trip around the world. I don’t care

if you’ve survived jumping from

a burning building or fended off

an armed robbery in your home

with the rest of your family held

at gunpoint. I don’t care if you’re

Samwise Gamgee and you repelled

Shelob with a pretty-looking dagger

and a lightbulb. That’s all fine and

dandy, but if you have ever played

StarCraft, at some point or another,

this has been your greatest fear.

Ladder anxiety is something we’ve

all experienced. For some of you,

the anxiety grew inside of you like a

slow-growing cancerous tumor, los-

ing game after game before finally

succumbing to your frustration. For

a different crowd of players, maybe

your ladder anxiety was onset by

an opponent who completely de-

stroyed you, demoralizing you from

ever playing the game again. But

it doesn’t have to be this way. The

Button is merely a graphic, made

up of pixels. It only elicits anxiety

because we give it the authority to

do so. By the time you finish read-

ing this, I will have convinced you

why the ladder (and ladder anxi-

ety) should not be any reason to

dissuade you from playing one of

the most challenging and exciting

games of this day.

Be CoolRemember to take a chill pill once

in a while. StarCraft 2, a career for

some, is just a game for the masses

of casual players. Even with a Match

History page full of lost games and

ladder points, one must realize that

these statistics mean nothing. Your

win/loss ratio and your continually

growing bonus pool are arbitrary

numbers that exist solely so

Tasteless can take them away from

you. In fact, I would find it much

more stressful to continue playing if

I had a page full of wins rather than

losses (an event which has admit-

tedly never happened), because I

risk the possibility of having a single

instance of minus points and a skull

interrupt a perfect run.

However, the problem with this hy-

pothetical is that I will inevitably fall

victim to the ladder system’s work-

ings and be matched with an of-

fracing Korean and lose. Games are

supposed to be fun, not something

to worry yourself over. StarCraft,

however competitive it may be, is

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More games means more points. More points means promotion. Play more!

no exception. So relax, just play

your heart out.

Losing is okay.It’s extremely gratifying to pull off

a difficult win over a skilled oppo-

nent. Conversely, it can be demoral-

izing to lose a long and close game.

But we must realize, as Ukrainian

progamer White-Ra famously stat-

ed, that with “more GG, more skill”.

As with mostly everything in our

lives, we learn from our mistakes.

Just like how we learn to check

for ample toilet paper before

we use the bathroom, we slowly

learn from our mistakes playing

StarCraft. Blindsided by a 6gate?

You should’ve sacked your over-

lord to scout those extra gates. Lost

to a baneling bust? Now you know

what that extractor before spawn-

ing pool means. In fact, if you find

yourself losing pretty frequently,

you should play even more games

to increase your ever-growing pool

of knowledge. You’ll be able to re-

spond to situations better and fast-

er than before.

The ladder is your friend.The ladder is a measure of your

progress and your current skill

level, crafted specifically to pit you

against players who are statistically

just as good as you are. No amount

of correcting mistakes and strat-

egizing will convince a bronze-level

player to continue laddering if he

gets matched with grandmaster-lev-

el players every game. This is exact-

ly why the different tiers of leagues

exist. It might make you feel bad

if you’re in gold league and you

feel like you should be in platinum

and unable to find that promotion,

but you’ll get there eventually.But

remember, someone out there is

always going to be better than you.

This statement isn’t meant to scare

you. If anything, it should moti-

vate you, because you can always

overcome an obstacle. Think of it

as if you were back in high school.

We can try however hard we want

to try to succeed in our classes, but

there’s always a concept or piece of

knowledge out there that we know

exists, but can’t understand at the

moment. Through structured and

stepwise learning, like the methodi-

cal advancement through the lad-

der system, we eventually gain the

knowledge and skills necessary to

surpass what was originally too

daunting to understand.

Be nice.This one is probably the hard-

est to do. Bad manner (BM) and

ROFLstomping your opponent can

be very fun, but never are when

you yourself are a victim to a foul-

mouthed player’s antics. That being

said, players should be nice to each

other. Sure, trashtalking is a neces-

sary part of any sport, but people

become generally happier when

complimented instead of ragged on

all the time. Haven’t you ever found

yourself in a situation where you

decisively defeat your opponent

and he responds with a “gg wp”? It

feels incredible. With the minimal

effort it took for your opponent to

type an extra “wp” after his “gg”,

you now feel lighter than air and

brimming with confidence.

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Conquering ladder anxiety and becoming a better gamer

Want to move up on the ladder, but having a tough

time hitting that find match button? Well, you’re not

alone, but you probably already know that due to it be-

ing the number one question amateur players ask pros.

Pros are not suited to answer that question because

they are, in fact, pros. People tend to just mass games

and assume it will make them better, but that is not the

case in anything.

Look at real sportsDo you think a professional basketball player like

Gordan Hayward got to where he is by just setting up

a lot of skirmishes? No, he worked on each aspect of

what he thought would make him a better player. Bit by

bit, he improved his game. Of course, having a friend to

practice against helped him, but he still would practice

dribbling and shooting by himself. Did this make him a

better player quickly? Again, no, but eventually the piec-

es would come together.

I am a very analytical caster but last year I was stuck

in diamond and scared to hit that button. Since then

I have completely changed my mindset and have hit

master with every race on three of the big servers: NA

as Terran, EU as Protoss, and Korea as Zerg! How did I

do that? The simple answer is that I changed the defi-

nition of a loss: just because I lost all my buildings did

not mean I lost the game. I had a goal for each game,

and as long as I accomplished that goal, I was perfectly

happy.

Your current StarCraft mindset is to just win games.

I know you may think you are playing a macro game,

but once you smell blood you go for the win. Going for

a forge fast expand in PvZ and notice the Zerg trying

hatch first? Sucks for him; I will just build a cannon and

win the game. I’m not cheesing; he is just stupid. Well,

congratulations. You won the game, but did you really

win it? Do you consider that knowing how to win is actu-

ally a measure of your skill? How do you know that you

earned that win? Your opponent made a mistake and

you said, “get out,” and you got a little bit higher on the

ladder, but you gained absolutely nothing else in terms

of your skill set. Do you really consider it a win if you

cannot measure it? I don’t.

The system is rigged; Battle.net is designed to keep you at a 50% win rate.So if the system is going to force you to lose, why would

you ever use it to measure your skill? Additionally, you

don’t know how you place against the entire continent.

A gold player is better than 50% of the people on battle.

net. If your goal is Masters, then you’d have to be better

than 95% of the people on your entire server.

If you want to be the top 5%, you are going to have to

learn how to train. Let’s compare IdrA and Stephano,

the two biggest Zerg names. When it comes to bal-

ance, Idra says Zerg is not meant to beat Protoss while

Stephano says it comes down to player skill. Which

player do you think is going to succeed? The one who

accepts defeat before playing, or the one who says “I

just have to play better?” Over the past few months, I

would say the person who mass-gamed (IdrA) has not

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increased his overall skill nearly as much as the person who just trained for a few hours a day (Stephano).

A good mindset is all you need to improve. You lost a game on ladder? Who cares? You were working on improving

and can measure that; winning doesn’t mean anything. Losing should be good; it means you are pushing yourself.

No pain, no gain. Here are some example goals that I created for myself. Start off with just one bullet.

Multitasking• Kill one of your opponent’s workers with your scouting worker. This is easiest to do against a Terran player.

As long as you have done this, it is a win. If you are having trouble doing this, play the “Multitask Trainer” on

Battle.net. Just 30 minutes a day, for a week, and you will notice a huge improvement if you are anything be-

low Masters.

• Never attack in a ball; if you want to attack or harass it must be from multiple areas. If you don’t botch up a

double pronged attack or drop, you win. However, if you end up losing units because you are not looking at

them, you lose.

Macro• If you go above 1000 resources, you lose. Once you get decent with that: If your resources differ by 400 at

any point in the game, you lose.

• If you have too many production buildings, you lose (until 200/200). Oftentimes when people get use to

keeping their minerals low, they will end up having too much production being on 12 gates on 2 bases.

• If your energy on any of your “macro mechanic” goes beyond 125, you lose.

Misc• Speed: Have double your normal APM redundancy. This is, by far,

the hardest one. This means you have to SPAM the entire game; you

can check your redundancy using SC2Gears after the game. I found

this to be the best way to become faster; eventually that redun-

dancy will go down as you will be finding more actions to do instead

of mindless spam. Also note, this one will make you lose the most

games and take the longest to notice any results, but if you want to

work on your speed this is the way.

• Micro/Macro: Build only 1 unit that requires micro. I prefer marines,

lings, and stalkers (blink) and don’t attack until you are on 2 bases (3

for Zerg). This is by far the hardest one.

• Scouting: Predict when your opponent is going to attack, watch

streams, and note the times certain things finish.

• TvZ: 9 to 10 minutes, this is just before mutas would come out.

• PvT: 6 Minutes, warp gate finishes

Feel free to make up your own sce-

narios, just remember to ensure it

is measurable on yourself and not

your opponent. Trying to measure

your progress by Blizzard’s lad-

der system is like measuring your

overall intellect via simple math

test. Sure, there is a correlation be-

tween smart people and mathema-

tician, but learning math is not the

only way to become smart.

Remember, you are going to lose

while trying to improve; if you need

motivation, forget about goals one

day a week. That is the day you go

back to doing whatever it takes

to win, and you should now have

massive winning streaks.

46

On time in Starcraft 2

In StarCraft 2, time is the measure of how a long a game

is. It is also a tool that can be used by both observ-

ers and players in order to deepen their overall under-

standing of the game. Generally there are three types

of time I’ve categorized while playing SC2: supply time,

actual time, and relative time.

Supply TimeThe first type, supply time is generally used to map out

build orders. These are the most useful in the early

game, but generally lose importance around then 20-

40 supply mark. The exception to this is a specific 2

base all-in such as the 6-7 blink stalker +2 timing attack,

where a forgotten pylon will make the difference of 1-2

extra cycles for a Terran or Zerg opponent.

Actual TimeThe second type is actual time. I feel this is the least

important of the three types, but it is useful when doing

a catch-all build with limited scouting or aggression. An

example is a 1 rax expo into double gas against Protoss.

General timings a player should know have mostly all

been chronicled on the Team Liquid forums.

Relative TimeThe third type of time is relative time. Relative time is

time defined by how far along you are militarily, eco-

nomically, and technologically compared to your oppo-

nent. This type is probably the most helpful in learn-

ing builds, in scouting properly and most importantly

in helping you recognize your position in the game.

Relative time is also one of the easier ways to learn a

build after the 30 supply mark as generally there are

too many things to deal with.

Basically, the best way I’ve found to remember a build is

to plan the next step of the build relative to the previ-

ous step. I used this method to learn Nada’s TvZ build

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from the Open Season 2 when he tore off his jacket and

beat Leenock.

Each part of the build is logical. After the 1 barracks

expansion into double gas, you go double factory blue-

flame hellions because you need a way to gain map

control at the same time as denying a possible third.

Then you get an armory and start to upgrade +1 vehicle

weapons as this makes hellions a serious threat, while

at the same time the armory is a cue to start making

thors as the general timing of mutalisks is coming up.

At the same time, the next logical step is that mutalisks

will take map control, therefore I need to prepare for a

third base and you start building the command center.

At this time, money is building up, so you need extra

production to keep up with Zerg, in this case you add 2

more factories for hellions, and then 4-5 more barracks

and get the infantry upgrade for a super powerful push

as you take your third and secure your fourth at the

same time.

Of course if I was using this build now, I’d probably get

a faster third off of the backs of the hellions and instead

of teching back to infantry, I’d tech up to air to pre-empt

the eventual drop tech or brood tech. Then I’d go into

5 barracks ghosts after securing the fourth. But the

thought remains the same. You change the build to ac-

commodate the current trends of the matchup and use

logical steps to plan out the next steps of your build in

an easy to remember way.

Relative time can only be used for scouting and determining position in the game when scouting is possible.For instance, in standard PvZ Protoss will forge fast

expand (FFE) and zerg will get 3 base hatch. The cur-

rent standard of the matchup is to skip early game

shenanigans and go into the mid game. But if the

Protoss does not get the third or fourth gases after

a FFE while chronoboosting the forge, then the Zerg

knows that he has to drone 10-20 less drones as com-

pared to a toss that gets both the 3rd and 4th gas. At

the same time the Zerg must also get a roach and evo

chamber up. By doing this, Protoss has forced the Zerg

into the mid-game earlier but with less drones or opti-

mally with one less base. On the other hand Protoss is

going into the mid game with less tech, and therefore

must gain some advantage out of this attack.

Another example is when a Terran scouts a half-fin-

ished spire. Generally speaking a Terran will make a

blind engineering bay and turrets against Zerg. But if

the Terran sees that the spire early or late, the Terran

knows how fast the mid-game is coming. If the spire

is early, there is a possible chance to push and cause

some damage to the Zerg, since Zerg is trying to force

the mid-game early. On the other hand, if the spire is

late, then the Zerg is probably droning up more, while

getting more units and upgrades and is therefore delay-

ing the mid-game, and generally a timing attack at that

point is harder than if the Zerg got an early spire.

The best example I know of is the six pool on Tal’darim

Altar. The general PvZ standard here is FFE vs 3 hatch

Zerg. But a Zerg can 6-pool and delay both players mid-

games and instead forces the early game to extend by

an extra 4-5 minutes. By doing this, the Zerg throws

out all of the general timings that can happen on this

map. At the same time, Zerg is at a slight advantage be-

cause of the lings in the Protoss base, which gives him

constant scouting and he can therefore rightly assess at

what stage the game is in.

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Art: Nathan Boyd (nathanboydart.com)

How to get the most out of your overlords

The overlord. Misunderstood, the overlord is often

branded slow, bloated, and useless. However, while de-

nying his lack of speed is futile, the overlord has many

uses and abilities that many people overlook. As a

Master League player who has played over 2,000 games

as Zerg, these are my favorite tips and tricks that can

help you get the most out of your overlords.

On maps like Metalopolis, The Shattered Temple, and

Shakuras Plateau I would always recommend send-

ing your initial overlord to the closest possible spawn

location of your opponent. If they spawned there, your

overlord now has a front row ticket to watch your op-

ponent’s opening. This information will prepare you to

know if you need to continue to build drones or pre-

pare for a 6-pool attack. Just make sure your overlord

makes his great escape before a marine, stalker, queen,

or sentry comes out! After you’ve seen and understood

his opening, you can rest your overlord outside his ex-

pansion to see if he intends to take it. If he does, you

could take your own, or punish him for taking his.

Having a wide overlord spread is a necessity for Zerg

players. Zerg relies on map vision, so having overlords

conveniently placed around attack routes or expan-

sions will ensure you’re never in the dark. Also, use 4-5

overlords to secure the vision of the entire perimeter of

your base. This way, you wont be caught off guard by a

medivac drop, warp prism, or nydus worm. Using over-

lords for vision effectively is critical to playing Zerg, and

is a skill that all high-level Zerg players share.

What’s better than knowing exactly when your oppo-

nent is trying to expand? Not letting him. Spreading

creep onto your opponent’s possible expansions is an

incredibly underused tactic that separates good Zergs

from great Zergs. With the optimum amount of creep

you can drop on one expansion, you can delay an oppo-

nent from expanding for almost a minute. Burrow a zer-

gling there too and you’ll have your opponent breaking

his/her keyboard in frustration.

At first glance overlords may seem slow and weak, but

learning how to use them efficiently is what makes Zerg

players great. Using overlords to scout, for vision, and

to deny expansions are three tips that have helped el-

evate me to Master League. Incorporating them into

your gameplay could put you on that next level. So get

out there, ladder, and always remember that one of

your bloated, balloon-shaped supply could potentially

win you a game.

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D’aww they upgrade up so fast!

Why you should never forget to research combat shield

I’ve noticed in many lower level games that combat shield never gets re-

searched as much as it should; it can easily get forgotten but is totally worth

getting. You shouldn’t underestimate the power combat shield can grant

you. Don’t believe me? Read on.

With combat shield, marines take an extra hit from banshees and unsieged

tanks, and an extra two hits from a marine which makes it extremely useful

and in most cases better than stimpak in early game TvT.

Okay, so firstly let’s see what the upgrade actually does. It gives every ma-

rine an extra 10 hit points and a cute little shield.

Number of marines Total cost of marines Added HP from CS

5 250 50

10 500 100

20 1,000 200

- x x/5

As you can see there is a relationship between the amount you spend on

marines and the added HP from combat shields you get x/5 added HP. e.g.

If you spend 850 minerals on 17 marines, you’ll get 170 equivalent addition-

al hit points. That’s a little over 3 marines for 100/100 in terms of hit points.

Here’s another reason why this upgrade should never get forgotten...

Unit vs Marine # of hits to kill a 3/3 Marine

# of hits to kill a 3/3 Marine with CS

Zergling 23 28

Zealot 7 8

Marine 8 10

Roach 3 4

Just goes to show if you get ahead in upgrades you’ll benefit not only just

from the upgrade itself but also make combat shield exponentially better in

this matter.

I hope you enjoyed my article and if you

have any comments, questions or ideas you

can contact me at

cypherprime404@gmail.com

Example scenario: Say you’re

playing against a forgetful Zerg op-

ponent who for arguments sake

only builds zerglings and forgets to

upgrade their units, with 3/3 ma-

rines with combat shield they will

take an extra 5 hits! And because

of the +3 damage, that’s an extra

~36 damage per marine there just

between the time it took a zergling

to kill a 3/3 marine with combat

shield than if it wouldn’t.

It’s also important to note that a

baneling will one-shot a stimmed

marine without combat shield, so

opting for stimpacks without com-

bat shield is a somewhat risky ma-

neuver against Zerg.

Unit Fact: Did you know Terran’s average unit distribution for marines is 54%?

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Newbie corner

Can any of you split harvesters?No?Good.Come in to my humble abode, sit

down, and make yourselves com-

fortable. This is Newbie Corner, and

I am your host, Faydra. Now I’m

sure many of you consider your-

selves dedicated players - followers

of StarCraft! Sons and daughters

of the StarCraft 2 community! But

perhaps you’re a family man, who

can only play late at night when

your kids are in bed. Perhaps you’re

a student? Perhaps you’re simply a

lonely nerd in a basement? Never

fear, you’re all welcome because

when you’re with me, we all have

something in common.

We’re terrible Noobs. Now I know

what you’re thinking – you’re think-

ing “PAH! Who is this Faydra? Who

does he or she think he or she is?

I hate these Master-level players

always roflstomping me with their

greater knowledge of the game.”

Stop that thought right there. I am

no Master-level player, I’m a top 8

silver, and do you know what? I’m

damn proud of it. And you should

be too!

The point of all this is to introduce

to you this article, which will cover

everything that concerns all you

bronze-to-gold level players out

there, with a lighter spin on things.

I’ll make something clear straight

off – if you’re going to be a jerk or

any other of the assorted types of

troll I see out there on the inter-

net on a regular basis then you can

leave, you aren’t needed or wanted.

This is just light relief for those who,

like me, find blink-stalker micro

difficult.

But enough! I suppose I better get

to it before I waffle on any further.

This week on the ladderThis section will be regular, and will

cover my own and others’ experi-

ences on the ladder. Now I’m no

Artosis, but I can chat about things

that I’ve seen, things that I’ve been

trying, and holes I’ve noticed in my

own play. You can do the same.

There will be an e-mail address you

can send all your stories, hints and

tricks to and I’ll fit as much as I can

into the article every week.

So, what have I been up to this

week? Well, most of the time I’ll play

Zerg on the ladder, but a couple

of times a month I’ll foray into the

realms of playing random (and

my ladder rank suffers because of

it). This week was one such, and it

hasn’t gone so well. I knew from the

beginning that my Protoss was bad.

And I don’t just mean bad, I mean

Bad (notice the capital B?). I mean

bad as in building colossus to coun-

ter thors because I thought bigger

units meant more damage. I’m not

exaggerating; I have actually had

this thought process before.

So I needed practice before I was

goingv to go into battle against my

fellow Noobs, and the obvious an-

swer was to go up against the AI.

Through the hours I spent play-

ing against the AI I felt an epiphany

come upon me. It seemed to me,

that if you could beat the “Very

Hard AI” with your race, then you

could beat any but the best of silver

and bronze leaguers. Why? Because

after I beat “Very Hard” for the first

time as Zerg I went to on to get

promoted to Silver. This was some

months ago. Thus, I had it in my

head that there was a link between

the two and if only I could beat the

Very Hard AI with my offraces then

they would both be silver-league

standard!

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GLHF MAGAZINE

Didn’t work out.

Art: Blizzard Entertainment

Flushed with the victory of this

knowledge, I promptly spent

around a dozen hours trying to

beat the Very Hard AI not only with

my Protoss but also with my Terran.

I succeeded. By now I was positively

wetting myself at the anticipation of

the ownage I was sure to hand out

on the Noobs that would bow down

before my might.

So what have I learned? I’ve learned

that people are often more inven-

tive than the computer, I’ve learned

that people like to macro and not

just all-in at ~7:30 as the AI seems

to enjoy doing. Also this: mutalisks

are really annoying aren’t they?

How on Earth am I supposed to

ever take a third as Protoss? Maybe

you guys could let me in on the se-

cret. This week I intend to stick to

my Zerg, repair the damage done

to my ladder Rank and then, hope-

fully, embarrass myself by going

Random again.

Absolute basics: Zealot

The Zealot. His meditation is over.

He’s warping over millions of miles

just to serve your needs, and he’s

damn good at it.

The zealot is the melee mainstay of

your ground army. With so much

health and shields he tanks a ton of

damage as well. He owns zerglings,

and all this for only one hundred

inerals? For these reasons alone

you should have plenty of them

knocking around. A great use is to

finish your wall-off with them, but

be SURE to put them on hold posi-

tion. They’re also great for dropping

in your opponent’s mineral line, as

they slice straight through harvest-

ers all kinds – be sure to target

MULEs!

There is, as always, a downside.

To start with, they’re slow, so slow.

roaches are faster, marines are

faster, marauders are faster, and

zerglings are faster. In the first ten

minutes of your games, you’re go-

ing to have to worry about all of

those units. Furthermore, they don’t

“shoot up”, meaning they aren’t

anti-air. In the short term all this

means is remember to get stalkers

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Notice the supply afterwards.

Cancel extractor after starting a drone

and sentries as well as zealots. Not

too hard right?

Zealots are at their best when they

can slash through an army with-

out having to chase after them on

their little legs. Because of this, you

should always be conscious when

using forcefields with your sen-

tries – can you trap some units? Can

you slow them down? sentries and

zealots go well together, my protoss

friends.

Zealots don’t do well against fast

units or air units. If there are muta-

lisks in your base don’t send your

zealots back there, they’ll just get

nom-nommed into oblivion – send

your stalkers. On the other hand, if

you get a Terran drop in your base

and you can snipe that medivac?

Get those zealots in there because

your opponent has nowhere to run.

For next time, tell me your funky

zealot uses!

The extractor trick (Zerg)

As I’m worried most of you aren’t aware, drones take up supply (It’s true,

check it if you don’t believe me). Now, economy is important. If you take

nothing else from reading all of this then it’ll still be worthwhile. So, have

you ever wanted that one extra drone? Those few extra minerals to get that

slightly faster queen and hold off that slightly meaner 10-pool? Well now

you can! By reducing your supply by from 10 to 9, you can squeeze in an-

other drone at the beginning of your game. It goes like this:

Supply Steps10 Extractor

9 Drone

10 Cancel Extractor

You will now be at 11/10 supply! Where I slide my overlord in here changes

every time I play, though I’m sure there is an “economically correct” way of

doing it which is way beyond my ken.

You should all bear in mind that this technique may only be useful for cer-

tain builds, or for countering certain builds. If you want to play it safe, al-

ways go 9 overlord, 14 gas, 14 pool!

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Credit: Starcraft 2 fansite kit

GUIDESRoach-Ling Baneling BustLeenock MLG Finals BuildPositive MindsetXsplit Casting Guide

Terran Bronze To Diamond Guide

Tim ClarkEvan Crothers

Tim ClarkAli Haghani

TeamTrebis© 2007 Blizzard Entertainment

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We’re going to look at the following

timing attack:

8 Roaches, 6-8 Banelings, and 30

Zerglings by 8:20

Now I know what you might be

thinking...”How the heck can you

get that strong of a push at 8:20

without being all-in?” Well, surprise

surprise, this is an all-in build - you

will not go beyond 22 drones with

this attack. There will be some ex-

ceptions where you do the push

and decide to drone afterwards, but

for the most part this push is de-

signed to outright win the game.

I know that many players frown

at all-in aggressive builds, but it is

my opinion that all serious StarCraft

2 gamers should experiment and

perfect a few all-in timing attacks

for two reasons: it does improve

certain skill sets and it does add an

element of unpredictability to

your play. Should you make it your

exclusive style of play? Of course

not - but don’t ignore it either. I

encourage you all to keep an open

mind to new strategies that deviate

from what is considered “standard”.

There is more than one way to play

successful StarCraft, and you’re put-

ting yourself at a disadvantage if

you limit your arsenal of strategies

to exclusively macro builds.

The Build:

Opening Step 1: “Scouting and Planning”

You want to keep very precise

timings on your buildings, over-

lords, and drones to ensure maxi-

mized mineral income. It’s also very

important to scout to determine

whether Terran is planning to pres-

sure you so you can plan the re-

sponse to hold that pressure with-

out losing drones.

15 Hatch (Drone Scout)15 Gas15 Spawning Pool17 Overlord

When the spawning pool finish-

es, you should have already deter-

mined your opponent’s opening

build. Against any build with gas,

you’re going to skip spine crawler

defense and go right into 2-4 zer-

glings and 2 queens. The only time

you will build spines is if your op-

ponent is putting on 2 barracks

pressure. Builds like 1 barracks

“light” marine/SCV pressure, reaper

pressure, hellion openings, etc. can

be shut down with proper queen/

zergling/drone micro until roaches

are out. However, if your opponent

has proxied his barracks or both his

barracks finish by 3:00 (11/11 2rax)

then you will immediately need 2

spines at your expansion.

Roach-Ling Baneling Bust

by Tim Clark

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GLHF MAGAZINE

Opening Step 2: “Responding”

You should now have an idea of

what your opponent is doing and

planned your response accord-

ingly. You should be practicing thin

early game defenses while sticking

to the following steps. There are a

few tricks to make defense easier

(against hellions, for example).

17 Queen x221 Ling(2-4)23 Drone to 2828 Roach Warren27 Additional Drone

Opening Step 3: “Preparing the Push”

At this point, you’ve scouted

your opponent’s opening, you’ve

easily defended all early pressure

and you’ve kept all your build or-

der steps the same so your roach

warren is already on the way.

Everything is in place for you to ex-

ecute a well-timed all-in, you just

need to start the upgrades and

build the units.

28 Zergling Speed (Delayed)28 Overlord x228-44 Roach x844 Baneling Nest43 Additional Drone44 Overlord x244-60 Mass lings, rally to roaches

Morph as many banes as you

can in front of the Terran base at

8:00

8:20 - 8 Roaches, 6-8 Banelings,

and 30+ Lings

The Execution:

Execution Part 1: Disguise your Attack

Whenever you’re executing a

build like this, you want to make it

as much of a surprise as possible

for your opponent. Here are a few

ways to deny his scouting:

1) Kill his scouting SCVs with

zerglings/queens.

- Use your opening zerglings to

make sure he doesn’t sneak an SCV

into your main. (See example 1 on

following page)

2) Build your warren in your main

and your baneling nest at your ex-

pansion, he’s less likely to scout

both.

3) Don’t show him all 8 roaches. If

he’s pressuring with hellions, don’t

reveal all of your roaches - just use

3-4 to push the hellions back to his

base and then move out with your

roaches

4) Plan to move your roaches out

so that they arrive near the Terran

front at 8:00 and morph the banel-

ings right away so you can move in

to attack at 8:20.

5) Don’t morph banelings too close,

try to morph them outside of your

opponent’s vision. You want to

group up as close to the Terran

front without giving his units/build-

ings vision of the impending attack.

NOTE: Between 5:30-6:20 reac-

tor hellions are a threat. Since your

roaches don’t spawn until 6:20 and

you haven’t built zerglings or spines,

you could potentially be in a hazard-

ous situation to even 2 hellions. It

is never a bad idea, when you scout

the hellions on the way, to wall your

expansion ramp with your 2 queens

and bring any drones from your

expansion to your main. You will

lose some mining time and you will

miss a bit of larva-inject time, but no

drones/queens will die before your

roaches are out and that is the most

important thing.

NOTE: If you struggle with early pres-

sure because your drone micro is

weak or if you for some reason don’t

get the scouting information, it’s not

the end of the world to build one

spine to be safe.

NOTE: Use your opening zerglings to

make sure he doesn’t sneak an SCV

into your main. (See example 1 on

following page)

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GLHF MAGAZINE

Execution Part 2: Micro your Attack

The micro of this push is fairly

easy, but you do have that constant

element of keeping up with larva

injects and producing constant zer-

glings rallied to your roaches.

The first thing you must do

is scout with a zergling before

engaging.

Determine where his bun-

kers are placed, where his units

are, where there are gaps to run

through, etc. Each time will be

different.

As a general rule if they’ve taken

their expansion, aim the banelings

into either groups of clumped up

units, clumps of SCVs either repair-

ing or attacking, or even through

bunkers themselves while your

roaches absorb damage and your

lings surround units. If he hasn’t

taken his expansion and he’s walled

the top with a depot/bunkers, you

can either break through the depot

with the banelings and then break

the bunker with the roaches or

break the depot with the roaches

and the bunkers with the banelings.

The latter requires a bit more micro

and is a bit harder to do, but can be

very successful.

Kill those annoying scouts before its too late!

Ready for some micro?

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Transition:

Because you commit so much to

this attack, your best option if your

first push doesn’t work is to essen-

tially commit to an all-in by continu-

ously stream lings off your 2 hatch-

eries with 2 queens, then morphing

as many banelings as your one gas

geyser allows. Proceed to constant-

ly zergling/baneling bust until you

win or lose like in the games be-

tween Smaug and OscarMike:

http://drop.sc/98510 http://drop.sc/98446

If your opponent somehow holds

your early push and gets 2-3 tanks

out, you’re sort of forced to start

pumping drones off 2 bases and

2 queens. He probably hasn’t ex-

panded, which means theoretically

you could transition into a macro

game from here (it’ll be in very rare

circumstances and honestly you’re

probably behind).

Terran Responses:

This build is incredibly difficult

for Terran to stop, even if they

know it’s coming. It’s not impossible

though - here are a few examples of

some top level Terran players put-

ting me in my place.

In this example, I see a sturdy marine/tank/bunker defense. The bunker is placed close to the depot on the left, so I decide to lead with banelings through that depot and then flood in with the roaches and lings.

The end result.

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Terran Responses (cont.):

Game 1: Tang vs SiN

SiN is a top-master/GM Terran on

the NA server. His build utilized

bunkers, banshees, and mass hel-

lions to defend his expansion.

http://drop.sc/98443

Game 2: Tang vs YoonYJ

This Korean pro made me look

silly. He took a very fast 3rd base,

and with solid defense and micro

he held the attacks and counter at-

tacked me later with marines and

marauders.

http://drop.sc/98445

References:

To perfect your opening build

up to 44 supply, I suggest read-

ing Step 3 of the Zerg Guide to

Macro-Aggression:

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/

viewmessage.php?topic_id=301616

Replays:

“Big Bust” Roach/Ling/Bane Stream Tutorial:

http://www.twitch.tv/tangsc/b/306466364

Tang vs Frego (Reactor expand)

http://drop.sc/98513

Tang vs Svane

http://drop.sc/98444

Tang vs OscarMike (Mass Marine Expand)

http://drop.sc/98446

Tang vs Jray (Bunker/Hellion/Marine/Banshee)

http://drop.sc/98447

Tang vs Pulimuli (Marine/Hellion Expand

http://drop.sc/98448

Tang vs Smaug (Tank/Marine/Bunker Defense)

http://drop.sc/98510

Tang vs bnYParadise (Hellion/Marauder)

http://drop.sc/98449

Vanrake vs FreeWare (2Rax)

http://drop.sc/98514

Special thanks to Tim “VPTang” Clark for submitting this article to

be adapted for use in the magazine. Please check out tangstar-

craft.com for more of Tang’s excellent Zerg strategy guides.

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Naniwa is clearly telling us that if

you want to win [in Protoss versus Zerg], you can actually fast expand all the time. - Nicholas “Tasteless” Plott during the MLG Providence finals after Naniwa won game 1.

Naniwa looked invincible.

Reaching the championship match

in the winner’s bracket, Naniwa had

plowed through some of the best

Zergs that the world had to offer –

including the renowned IMNestea.

Due to extended series regulations,

the champion of the MLG Global

Invitational was one game away

from winning his second tourna-

ment that weekend.

The only thing left in his way

was a 16 year old Korean from the

open bracket under the username

“Leenock” – and having already lost

the first game after a failed roach

all-in, things were looking grim.

But after his roach aggression

failed the first time, Leenock did

something that nobody, least of all

Naniwa, had anticipated.

Leenock did it again and again.

With that, Leenock turned a se-

ries one game away from defeat

into a best of 7 with an advantage

of 2-1. How did Leenock decide to

play from this advantage?

A six-pool into roach pressure to

decide the fifth game and one last

rendition of the roach all-in from

Leenock MLG ProvidenceFinals Build

Credit: wellplayed.org

by Evan Crothers

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GLHF MAGAZINE60 GLHF MAGAZINE

Naniwa holds Leenock’s all-in in game 1 and is poised to win a quick BO3 finals.

the first game to finish the sixth.

And in an instant it was done.

Leenock swiftly won 4 games in a

row and became the youngest ever

champion of MLG Providence SC2,

and he relied on very similar strate-

gies in 4 of the 5 games he played.

Below are the roach pressure builds

that Leenock used versus Naniwa.

Game 1 – Cross map on Shakuras

Naniwa goes for 17 Nexus10 Overlord14 Extractor14 Pool15 Zerglings(4) and Queen100 gas Metabolic Boost19 Drone20 Hatch19 Overlord x219 Roach Warren

Followed by:

1. Hatchery is cancelled

2. Roach warren finishes, injected

larvae available.

3. 8 roaches

4. Buckets of speedlings

Leenock hits at 6:50 using his

roaches to bust the wall so that his

speedlings can flood in. When the

attack appears to not be working,

Leenock drones hard, takes his nat-

ural and uses roaches to poke down

buildings to get token damage.

Naniwa held the all-in using addi-

tional cannons. He makes sure that

his wall is zergling tight at all times

to ensure a buildup of mass speed-

lings don’t finish him off. Naniwa

won this game when he scouted

the roaches coming across the map

using a lone zealot. This highlights

the importance of hiding the all-in

and denying scouting.

Game 2 – Close Air on Shattered

Naniwa goes for 17 Nexus14 Extractor14 Pool15 Overlord15 Lings(4) and Queen100 gas Metabolic Boost19 Drone20 Hatch

Due do his expansion being

blocked Leenock droned to 22 sup-

ply, while losing his initial 4 lings.

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GLHF MAGAZINE

Leenock safely exerts pressure on Naniwa’s expansion, sniping warp gate before it finishes.

20 Hatch19 Roach Warren18 Drone x3

Followed by:

1. Build 8 roaches ASAP

2. Drones behind it

3. Hits at 7:00 minutes

4. Use roaches to focus down cy

ber or other valuable build-

ings (delay warp gate)

5. Build a beautiful economy be-

hind it

Game 3 – Dualsight

Naniwa opts for a Forge Fast Expand

After his six-pool is repelled,

Leenock conserves his surviving

zerglings and makes 7 roaches to

pressure down Naniwa’s expansion

at 8:20. Naniwa is stuck on one

base and an economically ahead

Leenock seals his victory.

Game 4 – Positions 11 and 5 on

Tal’Darim Altar

Naniwa Builds 17 Nexus

10 Overlord14 Extractor14 Pool15 Lings(4) and Queen100 gas Metabolic Boost19 Drone20 Hatch19 Overlord x219 Roach Warren

Followed by:

1. Hatchery is cancelled

2. 8 roaches

3. Plenty of speedlings

Leenock handily broke the wall

for a quick win as his speedlings

poured through.

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Game 5 – Xel Naga Caverns

Naniwa Builds 15 Nexus

10 Overlord14 Extractor14 Pool15 Zergling(4) and Queen100 gas Metabolic Boost19 Drone20 Roach Warren19 Drone x221 Overlord

6 Roaches33 Hatchery32 Zerglings(4)

Leenock expands and drones up

as he already destroyed the forge

with his first four lings. Rather than

going all-in, Leenock uses his 6

roaches to destroy Naniwa’s nexus

and returns to a defensive stance.

From here, his economic advantage

and constant poking allows him to

handily secure a victory.

Leenock safely exerts pressure on Naniwa’s expansion, sniping warp gate before it finishes.

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Leenock safely exerts pressure on Naniwa’s expansion, sniping warp gate before it finishes.

As some of you know, I’m an

experienced and professional

StarCraft 2 coach. A lot of people

ask me: “What’s the one thing you

can tell me that will most drastically

improve my game?” Now, there’s

a million subtle in-game tips and

tricks I could tell you about, but

perhaps the most crucial yet often-

overlooked idea is your MINDSET.

You’ve probably all heard certain

sayings repeated over and over like

“The Power of Positive Thinking”

and “Healthy Body, Healthy Mind”,

and there’s a reason they’re repeat-

ed: they’re true! Think about IdrA,

he’s among the most phenomenal

StarCraft players of our time. His

mechanics and game-sense are on

a whole other level than the aver-

age player, but you still see him

struggle in tournaments and make

bad decisions when he’s in pres-

sure-filled situations. Anger, you’ll

find, is a StarCraft player’s worst

enemy.

So, how can we apply this to our

game? It’s simple:

1) Be Good Manner

Oftentimes, people get so

caught-up in the stress of the game

that they forget to have fun. At the

start of every game, don’t be mute

and don’t be rude: put out the GL

HF. If he doesn’t respond, that’s fine

- you’re probably in a more posi-

tive mindset and now you know

you have that edge over him - so

smile to yourself. Take it a step fur-

ther every game by wishing your

opponent the best of luck and tell-

ing him to have a blast, and leaving

every game with “GG nice timing

push” or “GG wp, that harrass was

killer, man!” If you stay good man-

nered, you’re more likely to stay

in a focused and positive mindset.

Then, instead of rage-quitting and

queuing another game while you’re

angry, you can take the reasons

you lost and apply them to your

game to further your growth. And

who knows, maybe that player to

whom you showed respect in your

gracious exit from the game will

provide you with a couple tips and

practice games to really help you

overcome that flaw in your game.

2) Be Confident

Now, I’m not saying everyone

should point at IdrA and do the

throat-slash like oGsMC did at MLG,

but StarcCraft 2 is competitive

and you have to know you have

an edge over your opponent

to play your best. When I play a

game, I use positive self-talk to stay

pumped and focus. Yes, it sounds

like something an insane asylum

resident would preach, but I assure

you it’s been proven effective. There

are two types of self-talk I recom-

mend. The first is motivational self-

talk: say something to get yourself

into the zone like “I’m going to win

this game” or my personal favor-

ite “The way I see it, those are my

ladder points - you’re just holding

them for me”. The second type is

instructional self-talk. For example,

say “I’m going to get my speed up

early, then expand, then I’m going

to drone to 27 get a warren down

and grind this guy’s front door with

ling/roach. Man, I’m going to force

the issue until he makes a mistake,

and when he does, I’m going to cap-

italize on it.” Therefore,

Positive Mindsetby Tim “VPTang” Clark

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GLHF MAGAZINE

talking to yourself doesn’t mean

you’re crazy - it keeps you focused

on your specific goals in the game

and gives you that oh-so-critical

mindset advantage.

3) Focus on YOUR game

How many times have you heard

someone complain about how

strong colossus are, how slow hy-

dras are, or how this guy or that

guy is a maphacker. Ignore this type

of thinking. Every StarCraft 2 play-

erwouldlearnandplaysignifi-

cantly better if they considered

imbalance, hacks, and cheese

non-existent. If you stop focusing

on things you can’t control, you’ll

start focusing on the things you

can. When someone cheeses you,

treat it like you played a 30 minute

game and still be polite and good-

mannered. When someone marine/

scv all-ins you, avoid thoughts like

“What a cheesy noob” or “Can he

not win a real game?” When you get

cheesed, exit the game with class,

and pay attention to how you could

have scouted a little earlier, how

you could have reacted a tad faster,

and how the execution of your

defense could be improved upon.

Cheese is a part of the game; you

can’t get rid of it but you can be ad-

equately prepared for it.

4) Be Healthy

This last tip isn’t absolutely nec-

essary to success, but if you want

to play at your best you have to be

at your best - both physically and

mentally. I have celiac disease, so

my diet is heavily restricted, but

ever since the diagnosis I’ve paid

very careful attention to what I eat

and I feel and play the better for

it. I’m not going to lecture you on

working out and eating right, but

you will notice a difference in your

focus if you’re properly nourished

and you will notice a difference

in your stamina if you’re in better

shape. Something I do frequently

is workout in between games. You

don’t need a strict routine - but do

some pushups, situps, planks, what-

ever - get the blood flowing and the

heart racing in between games and

snack on blueberries and yogurt

instead of nachos and ice cream.

There’s no reason someone who

plays 12 hour days in StarCraft 2

can’t be in excellent physical condi-

tion - try to apply your in-game ded-

ication to other areas of your life!

Question: How many losses do you usually go before you needtowalkaway?

I think what you experience is

similar to the psychology behind a

gambling addict (I don’t mean that

to offend you, bear with me). You

start to lose and you think “I need

to get my money back.” It’s like in

poker when you’re playing well for

an hour, and then you lose a huge

hand (or get bluffed) and you go on

tilt. You start thinking about that

hand and how you should have

played it, and your overall focus

deteriorates. You start to bluff too

much and you don’t stick to your

planned strategy.

The same things happen

in StarCraft when you’re los-

ing. People start to blindly all-in

and they deviate from the game-

plan that usually leads to success.

People place a lot of importance on

points/ladder rank/win-loss ratio,

so there’s a certain level of stress

when you start losing. You’ll start

thinking about the game where you

got cheesed and lost while play-

ing new games, and that’s basi-

cally like a poker player being on

“tilt” - you won’t be “In the zone” so

your timings/execution will start

so slip. That’s why you need to GG

after every game and review (with

an open mind) the games you lose,

carefully looking over your mistakes

and your opponent’s build/thought

process.

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Near the top center of the map during the Zero Hour mis-

sion, you will find a unit called LVL80TSM. Click on him and

he will retreat into a porta-potty. Continue to click and it will

countdown before launching into space.

EASTER EGGS

If you find yourself rage-quitting

games, being bad-manner, or even

just having those familiar “Ugh this

guy sucks, what a cheeser” or “I

suck, I should be winning, what’s

wrong with me?” thoughts, it’s time

to take a break. It doesn’t have to

be a long break - just do something

that’ll renew your confidence/focus.

Coffee and a light workout do won-

ders for me. Some players save

replays where they perform really

well, so they can watch that and

remember how well they’re capa-

ble of playing. When you sit back in

front of the screen, you should be

focused on your strategy and your

mindset: the only thing you should

think about yourself is “I’m a great

player and I’m going to win these

games; nothing is going to stand in

my way.”

If you make these changes in

your game, what’s the worst that

could happen? Thank you all for

reading, I wish everyone the best of

luck in their games, and hope you

all have a blast!

Special thanks to Tim “VPTang” Clark

for submitting this article to be

adapted for use in the magazine.

Please check out tangstarcraft.com

for more of Tang’s excellent strategy

guides.

66

GLHF MAGAZINE

Streaming Guide:

Starting up a stream can be dif-

ficult if you don’t know what you’re

doing. This video guide accompa-

nied by a written article will walk

you through the basics of starting

up your own stream.

There are two programs that

are generally used for streaming

games:

• XSplit (by Splitmedialabs):

Currently in beta, XSplit is the most

user-friendly streaming application

for Windows. It has all the capa-

bilities of its competitor FMLE and

more. XSplit is specifically designed

for streaming games and it’s an all-

in-one package for all your stream-

ing needs. You can currently down-

load XSplit in beta stage free from

xsplit.com.

• Flash Live Media Encoder or

FMLE (by Adobe): FMLE is also a

great program that can be used for

streaming but it does lack some

of the features XSplit is equipped

with. That is to be expected with the

“Free” price tag. For example,

FMLE cannot capture your screen it-

self and it requires a separate third

party program in order to achieve

what XSplit can do on its own. FMLE

can be downloaded from adobe.

com/products/flashmediaserver/

flashmediaencoder.

What you’ll need:

• A computer capable of running

the game of choice and streaming it

simultaneously. (Minimum: A dual-

core processor with a clock speed

of at least 2.3Ghz and 4GB of RAM)

• An account on a streaming site.

(TwitchTV, own3d, Ustream, etc.)

• Upload bandwidth sufficient for

streaming. (Minimum: 0.7mbps)

For this guide, we’ll be using XSplit.

Let’s get you broadcasting:

1. First, make an account to join

the Beta Crew and download XSplit

from www.xsplit.com.

2. Once the download is finished,

install XSplit.

3. When installed, run ‘XSplit

Broadcaster’ from the start menu.

4. Login with your XSplit account.

5. You now have a blank presenta-

tion, click add on the bottom left

and select ‘Add screen region...’

6. Box your whole screen by hold-

ing down click from the top left

corner to the bottom right, now you

may release the click button.

7. Double check to make sure the

resolution under the scene sourc-

es matches the resolution of the

screen you’ll be streaming from.

8. Maximize the preview of you see

of your screen to fill up the whole

screen in XSplit.

9. Now we will add our account

from the streaming site of choice by

clicking ‘Broadcast’ followed by ‘Edit

channels…’

10. Click ‘Add…’ on the right side of

the window and select your stream

provider.

11. Type in your username and

password to your streaming

account.

Xsplit Casting Guideby Ali “iAligator” Haghani

67

GLHF MAGAZINE

12. Click “Test Bandwidth” on the

bottom and wait for the test to

finish.

13. Once the test is finished, you

will get a recommended total band-

width for your video and audio

bitrate combined, remember that

number and close the Bandwidth

Test window.

14. Set the maximum bitrate for

video and audio so that the two

add up to the number you got from

the Bandwidth test window. (About

80% of total for video and 20% for

audio, so if you have for example

1000kbps total, ~800kbps max for

video and ~200kbps max for audio.)

15. Your stream properties should

look something like this.

16. Click ‘OK’ to close the properties

window.

17. Click on the resolutions tab on

the top and check off the desired

resolution(s). Make sure the aspect

ratio matches that of your screen.

18. Click ‘OK’ to close the resolu-

tions window.

19. You’re pretty much done! You

can set your frame rate and reso-

lution from the view menu, play

around with these to get the best

performance in-game and best

quality on the stream.

20. To broadcast, simply click

‘Broadcast’ and select your channel.

Send me your questions and

streams with the times you usually

stream and you may be featured in

a future issue! (Twitter @iAligator!)

Happy Streaming!

-Ali “iAligator” Haghani

@iAligator

video: http://vimeo.com/35280829

68

GLHF MAGAZINE

Team Trebis is a YouTube channel and community of gamers dedi-cated to helping each other own noobs and school noobs at the same time.

This week, they will be offering advice and analysis to help you get from the Bronze League all the way to the Diamond League using the Terran race.

Day 1: Bronze League — Decisiveness and Macrowww.youtube.com/watch?v=TnDz3c_Z7wI

Day 3: Gold League — Engagements and Unit Comp.www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvaxfZdC6Y4

Day 5: Diamond League — Scouting and Reacting in TvPwww.youtube.com/watch?&v=1Cr7Skuzo1g

Day 2: Silver League — Build Orderswww.youtube.com/watch?v=gKQH4T_kWsM

Menu Videowww.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOaQpBoFmCw

Day 4: Platinum League — Aggressiveness in TvZwww.youtube.com/watch?&v=axskwJ_sgwk

Terran Bronze To Diamond GuideBy TeamTrebis

69

GLHF MAGAZINE

Why did the Zealot win the staring contest? Because the Stalker blinked first.

DUMB JOKES