This is one of the reasons I love e-sports and the SC2 scene in general.
TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS
$39,972.81
ESPORTS Heroes
2. EvilGeniuses $666.00
For those that don't know...EvilGeniuses are a "rival" Pro SC2 team. It's awesome that they can support Liquid (and e-sports in general, I guess) like this.
It's a documentary about Team Liquid. If you know what a documentary is, and you know who Team Liquid is, you know what you're getting.
Look at the "biographical documentaries" category on Netflix: the descriptions are mostly in the form of "[narrator name] brings you the [adjective] story of [topic]" with little or no elaboration.
Team Liquid is a rather popular professional gaming team, especially in Starcraft 2. I doubt anyone would end up on their website not knowing who they are (why would you go to teamliquid.com just for kicks?) so it's not that bad of a flaw.
I've seen it and it's pretty good. I wish it had more of "following player X during a tournament day", but instead it's more based on interviews of all the members of the team. Still, worth the time and money (whatever you decide to pay for it).
I don't understand why Starcraft has such a big "Pro" scene compared to other RTS games, many of which are more sophisticated (e.g Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander).
Most of my experience playing Starcraft (the original) online was that the winner tended to be the one who could spam the most units out of the gate rather than any particular strategical cleverness.
I have played starcraft for ten years and reached a reasonable high level of skill. To be a good starcraft player, you need to be skilled in three broad areas
~~~
- Good mechanics and multitasking
This is your ability to have your units do what you want. You want unit X to go to place Y, you are quickly able to give that command, without taking up much of your attention. You're also able to simultaneously build units, advance your build at home, harass your opponent, reposition units, look at the minimap, and micromanage where necessary. Top players can have more than 5 actions per second average.
- Good micromanagement and tactical skill
For example, your ability to spread your units to take less damage from area of effect spells, focus fire on the most important enemy targets to get them down faster, your ability to position your units for flanking, to keep a scouting unit alive while being chased, etc. Maximizing the effectiveness of individual units.
- Good macromanagement and strategical skill
Your ability to advance your build at home correctly (what most effectively counters the opponent), to spend all your resources and not have it stack up in the bank, to choose the correct timings for expanding across the map or amassing an army, and to anticipate your army composition for what your opponent will do.
~~~
If you expect to be playing a game of chess, you'll be far behind even in the first few minutes. Your opponent's scouting unit micromanages and interrupts your build without your being able to kill even the scouting unit, and while your concentration is on the harassing unit, your opponent, who can multitask, executes his build perfectly.
Without a base level of competence mechanically (which in starcraft is about 2 effective actions per second) you cannot even compete strategically.
All three of these areas impress viewers which makes for a very 'spectatable' game.
Good mechanics and multitasking are evident when, after you've watched a battle, you can see how many more units the top player has been able to produce - while he was simultaneously micromanaging his units in battle.
Micromanagement, at least in starcraft, is very fun to watch. You can see the small army outmanoeuvre the larger enemy by individual control of units - it's hard to explain why it is impressive in just words, but the joy of watching good micromanagement is a core feature of spectating starcraft games. Watch for example here, how the player's marines dodges the spines while he keeps shooting.
Starcraft has a lot of 'soft counters' - units that counter other units but not completely. The focus on soft counters rather than hard counters gives players a lot of strategic freedom. Even if one player's units are countered, he can micromanage them and come out ahead. Or, for example, a player can take a risky early expansion to extra resources and rely on micromanagement of his few units to stay alive.
Finally, since the maps that people play on do change, it takes a while to find the optimal builds, so you do see a lot of really innovative strategic play that people love to watch. I really cannot give any examples on this without explaining many more details about the game. I am interested to hear why you think Total Annihilation would have more sophistication.
I must admit I haven't played many other games, but I have heard people complain that either the micromanagement or the multitasking aspect are not as much on the foreground in other games, and the combination of strategy + intense multitasking + micromanagement has kept starcraft exciting for both players and viewers.
In this presentation given at the Game Developer's Conference, a designer from SCII describes how they specifically tailored the game to be an e-sport.
I think it is because Blizzard is so careful about balancing the game, resulting in an immense diversity of available strategies. These become apparent once both players are sufficiently close enough in skill to be able to "spam" the same number of units out.
this documentary seems rushed and too scripted, maybe it could have learned something from this short video of the broodware scene, in which players were interviewed before and after a major tournament.
I'm a little disappointed there's no direct download (at least that I can see) for something they're asking money for. Could rip the youtube video I guess, but that's extra hassle and probably against the youtube TOS.
I lament the overlarge emphasis on entertainment careers by the general populace as much as anyone who will lament such things but.
Humanity must progress more than technologically, it must also progress culturally. What point is there to conquer diseases and have personal fusion if there is no entertainment to relax with? Some people enjoy relaxing by watching impressive displays of human ability; whether it be in sports, athletics, dancing or games. I do not watch much sports and not at all games but I can at least admire the mental acuity, precision reflex, long and short range planning and working memory of the top performers. But for the people who watch it I am sure it brings them enjoyment and happiness. That is a definite contribution to humanity.
There should be a profusion of ethical (not to be confused with politically lobbied) cultural artifacts to match the diverse whims and interests of humanity. A future where there is only a limited amount of scheduled scientifically approved things to do is not a future to look forward to.
How is this wasting your life? These guys are young - instead of working low paid, boring jobs to pay off student debt and finance an alcohol addiction they're doing something they love, travelling the world, making some money, all while they're barely out of high school. None of these guys will have any problems getting into a reputable university if they choose to study, and they are even building their own brands & networks (through sponsors etc) that they can use once they stop playing.
It teaches young people that with hard work and persistance one can achieve amazing feats. I think it is rather inspiring.
Besides, even if they didn't, and were just on some net community making lame comments and contributing nothing of worth to the world, who says they have to?
[+] [-] marcamillion|13 years ago|reply
TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS $39,972.81 ESPORTS Heroes
2. EvilGeniuses $666.00
For those that don't know...EvilGeniuses are a "rival" Pro SC2 team. It's awesome that they can support Liquid (and e-sports in general, I guess) like this.
[+] [-] trafficlight|13 years ago|reply
I really think all of the SC2 teams take that to heart.
[+] [-] sliverstorm|13 years ago|reply
Sure, it's a video. And it has something about Team Liquid.
...
???
[+] [-] dangrossman|13 years ago|reply
Look at the "biographical documentaries" category on Netflix: the descriptions are mostly in the form of "[narrator name] brings you the [adjective] story of [topic]" with little or no elaboration.
[+] [-] apaitch|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JD557|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neotorama|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MikeCapone|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] jiggy2011|13 years ago|reply
I don't understand why Starcraft has such a big "Pro" scene compared to other RTS games, many of which are more sophisticated (e.g Total Annihilation/Supreme Commander).
Most of my experience playing Starcraft (the original) online was that the winner tended to be the one who could spam the most units out of the gate rather than any particular strategical cleverness.
[+] [-] codehotter|13 years ago|reply
~~~
- Good mechanics and multitasking
This is your ability to have your units do what you want. You want unit X to go to place Y, you are quickly able to give that command, without taking up much of your attention. You're also able to simultaneously build units, advance your build at home, harass your opponent, reposition units, look at the minimap, and micromanage where necessary. Top players can have more than 5 actions per second average.
- Good micromanagement and tactical skill
For example, your ability to spread your units to take less damage from area of effect spells, focus fire on the most important enemy targets to get them down faster, your ability to position your units for flanking, to keep a scouting unit alive while being chased, etc. Maximizing the effectiveness of individual units.
- Good macromanagement and strategical skill
Your ability to advance your build at home correctly (what most effectively counters the opponent), to spend all your resources and not have it stack up in the bank, to choose the correct timings for expanding across the map or amassing an army, and to anticipate your army composition for what your opponent will do.
~~~
If you expect to be playing a game of chess, you'll be far behind even in the first few minutes. Your opponent's scouting unit micromanages and interrupts your build without your being able to kill even the scouting unit, and while your concentration is on the harassing unit, your opponent, who can multitask, executes his build perfectly.
Without a base level of competence mechanically (which in starcraft is about 2 effective actions per second) you cannot even compete strategically.
All three of these areas impress viewers which makes for a very 'spectatable' game.
Good mechanics and multitasking are evident when, after you've watched a battle, you can see how many more units the top player has been able to produce - while he was simultaneously micromanaging his units in battle.
Micromanagement, at least in starcraft, is very fun to watch. You can see the small army outmanoeuvre the larger enemy by individual control of units - it's hard to explain why it is impressive in just words, but the joy of watching good micromanagement is a core feature of spectating starcraft games. Watch for example here, how the player's marines dodges the spines while he keeps shooting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQtPMLOctBg
Starcraft has a lot of 'soft counters' - units that counter other units but not completely. The focus on soft counters rather than hard counters gives players a lot of strategic freedom. Even if one player's units are countered, he can micromanage them and come out ahead. Or, for example, a player can take a risky early expansion to extra resources and rely on micromanagement of his few units to stay alive.
Finally, since the maps that people play on do change, it takes a while to find the optimal builds, so you do see a lot of really innovative strategic play that people love to watch. I really cannot give any examples on this without explaining many more details about the game. I am interested to hear why you think Total Annihilation would have more sophistication.
I must admit I haven't played many other games, but I have heard people complain that either the micromanagement or the multitasking aspect are not as much on the foreground in other games, and the combination of strategy + intense multitasking + micromanagement has kept starcraft exciting for both players and viewers.
[+] [-] corysama|13 years ago|reply
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014488/The-Game-Design-of-STAR...
[+] [-] thisisnotmyname|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdl|13 years ago|reply
I think people just like watching high APM.
[+] [-] pwmanagerdied|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] otumm|13 years ago|reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D9NYaE0AH4
[+] [-] aw3c2|13 years ago|reply
It is edited a bit annoyingly but shows a nice view into the personalities of a esports "family of friends". Definitely recommended.
[+] [-] cdr|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gladioli|13 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] franzus|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dn_Ab|13 years ago|reply
Humanity must progress more than technologically, it must also progress culturally. What point is there to conquer diseases and have personal fusion if there is no entertainment to relax with? Some people enjoy relaxing by watching impressive displays of human ability; whether it be in sports, athletics, dancing or games. I do not watch much sports and not at all games but I can at least admire the mental acuity, precision reflex, long and short range planning and working memory of the top performers. But for the people who watch it I am sure it brings them enjoyment and happiness. That is a definite contribution to humanity.
There should be a profusion of ethical (not to be confused with politically lobbied) cultural artifacts to match the diverse whims and interests of humanity. A future where there is only a limited amount of scheduled scientifically approved things to do is not a future to look forward to.
[+] [-] mwilcox|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AlisdairO|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tinco|13 years ago|reply
Besides, even if they didn't, and were just on some net community making lame comments and contributing nothing of worth to the world, who says they have to?