T6SROF Open: How to Register

The registration period will start as of this post!

To register you will need to have a full account on the NA server and be a follower of my twitchTV channel (click here for my channel and click the "follow" button on the top)

You must email the following information to T6SROF@gmail.com from an address that can be used to contact you for any tournament related reasons.

• Subject line: Tournament Registration [Your TwitchTV username] , [Your current 1v1 league]
• Battle.net Name and Friend Code:
• If your name is difficult to pronounce or you'd prefer it pronounced a specific way include a phonetic spelling.  ex. BYOBKenobi (bee why oh bee ken OH bee)
• Your current 1v1 league placement with a link to your battle.net profile
• Your Time Zone.  ex. I am in Eastern Time Zone or GMT -5
• Best way to contact you for a game.  
• Your TwitchTV name

It's that easy!  Here's how my registration would look:

Bnet name: BYOBKenobi 198
1v1 league: Gold http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/profile/2096594/1/BYOBKenobi/
Time Zone: Eastern Standard Time GMT -5
Best contact: If I'm not in game you can reach me on skype at baromen.ironsack
TwitchTV: T6SROF


And on that note... START SENDING IN THOSE EMAIL REGISTRATIONS AND LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!

NOTE: Further tournament details will be determined by volume of incoming registrations.  Expect more details as they are nailed down, but if you'd like to know where we are at so far, just read the post below.

replace me

I need a replacement image for this:

so people watching a replay don't know how much time is left.

The Six Sided Ring of Fire's Yet Unnamed NA Starcraft 2 Tournament

Okay, for those of you keeping score, the 3 in 30 challenge has come and gone... and looks a hell of a lot more like a 2 in 30 challenge.  The move to Platinum league has been much more difficult than I thought it would be.  There really was nothing on the line for the "bet" I had with my buddy, but when I logged in yesterday people kept asking if I made it or not.  What that means is I have to do SOMETHING to pay off the bet.

What I've learned over the past couple months is that you guys are AWESOME and that I really enjoy spending time with everyone who stops by the stream.  You guys are funny, insightful, and motivate me to keep laddering.  That's really something special, so I decided that since I lost a "bet" I might as well pay up by doing something fun for everyone instead of trying to figure something silly to do as a punishment for not making it to Platinum yet.

So, without really knowing all the details, I'm going to sponsor a tournament!  This post is basically the pre-alpha build of this tournament and it will mostly depend on the response... but here's what I've got in mind so far... which is still open to change at any time.

First and foremost this will be a tournament for followers of my stream.  If you haven't already, hit that follow button!  If you need a link to the stream, it's in the sidebar to the right.  I'm trying to give back to people who have made this so much fun for me, not just the Starcraft 2 population at large.

The tournament will be broken down into "pools" of players at all skill levels represented.  This will be broken down in the most logical way possible (Diamond+, Plat/Gold, Silver/Bronze hopefully).  In these pools you'll have a group of players you have to play once.  You'll receive points based on win/loss and be seeded into a mini tournament after pool play has completed.  The replays of all games from BOTH PLAYERS need to be emailed to the commish... aka me.


The pool play games will be cast on stream as replays at my discretion.  As you guys know, my schedule can be brutal, so it's going to be hard to give you guys the consistency that you'd probably prefer.  Along those lines I'll be auditioning co-casters live on stream while we're setting this up.  This will provide two benefits.  1. I can practice.  2. When my go-to co caster has to work and I'm off we can try to show a couple games on stream.  This will be an opportunity for you to show what you've got if you've always wanted to give it a try!  If you'd like to audition, just install Skype and Replay Sync and let me know you're interested.

I'm hoping that each stage of the tournament will last about a week.  There will be an in-game chat room announced where you can go to set up your games, add your opponents, etc.  Because I want this to be accessible to people like me with jobs/school/families/etc I will set it up as best as I can to give you ample time to play your games.

If everything goes well this could be a reoccurring event.  That will depend on how big of a pain in the ass people are.  My "dream" scenario is everything goes smoothly and we start doing tournaments every month.  The second people start saying stuff like "I was trying to play this guy but he reported I didn't show" then I'm going to freak out.  If the turnout is big enough then I'll be looking for officials to moderate some of the games.

The prizes are yet unannounced, but picture something like a game off steam.  I'm reaching out to a lot of people to see what kind of interest level I can generate, but at the very least I'll throw up some bucks to make this interesting.

I will have every replay from the entire event, package them up real nice, and upload them for anyone who'd like them after the tournament is over.  I don't know why, but I LOVE replay packs like that.

Anyways, that's where my head's at right now.  Keep an eye out for additional posts on here once I figure out more of the details.

Match making in Starcraft 2

I have noticed a few things while laddering in Starcraft 2 that I'd like to talk about.  First, for the uninitiated, Starcraft 2 match making tries its best to give you opponents who are on your level based on a hidden stat called "Match Made Ranking" or MMR (I'm not actually sure what the second "M" stands for, but I've always said it "made" so whatever).  Your MMR is similar to the Elo system designed to rank chess players.  Here's the wikipedia article on Elo if you are staring blankly at that last sentence. Basically, it's a system that should be able to figure out the odds of a player winning a match.  The ideal scenario is to have a 50/50 chance of winning every game, but that's where things get funny.

Niroxs, Friend of The Six Sided Ring of Fire

Check out this guy's stuff, follow his stream, and like his facebook page.  He's been a big help to me and if you like what what I do here, do me the favor of supporting him too.  He's a great Starcraft 2 player and has been donating his time to help me improve as a player.  Really nice guy too.  

In fact, I'll come back later when I have time to cut up the VOD from today and post some highlights of Niroxs's coaching/playing (I thought I had him with 3 bases... meanwhile, he's on 9... yeah...)

http://www.facebook.com/NiroxsSC2

http://de.twitch.tv/firindus

http://www.competo-sports.org/news,1707.html

Cheese Night

Seeing as my 3 in 30 challenge is probably going to get stuffed by the incoming league lock (and my play) the viewers in my chat proposed a new "activity" for the stream.  Cheese night will be a night of fun and frolic... wine, tuxedos, classical music, top hats, white gloves... and most importantly... CHEESE!  I haven't decided quite what strategies I'll be employing, but think 3rax all in, 6 rack opener, thor/medivac rushes, double reactor hellions, etc.  This is where I reach out to the viewers and just do whatever they want for the next round.  Have some BS cheese you want me to throw at the enemy?  Let me know!  This won't be a night where I'm too concerned about the outcome of the games and should be a way to blow off steam after all the madness I've been going through the last couple weeks.  

Due to my work schedule rotating me back to a 6am to 6pm lifestyle I'll be trying to fit in Cheese Night at a time when I can get wasted and not get fired, so it will probably be on short notice.  I wanted to get the word out that this is going to be a real thing to get you guys thinking about what you'd like to see for Cheese Night.  I'm not a cheese-er by nature, so I'm going to need help setting up strategies.  If you've got a favorite cheese, post it in the comments!

UPDATE 2/18/12 - 4 Hellion Opener into siege timing attack TvZ (LKBO)

I was having a hard time beating Zerg with Terran so I reached out to the viewers in my chat and LKPL shared how he likes opening TvZ with 4 hellions into a 2 tank timing attack.  This strategy is best used when the Zerg player goes Hatch first.  If he doesn't expand by the time you've upgraded to an orbital stop what you're doing and get ready for a 7 roach rush.  My first indication that this may not be the right way to go is when I see he's started his spawning pool before he expands. EDIT: This build can work vs the 7 roach rush, just don't sacrafice your hellions, get them behind the wall, pull SCVs and keep producing marines from your barracks, siege tanks from your factory, and try to keep everything alive as long as you can.  Sacrifice SCVs first if anything.  A little micro will save you from the roach rush, but it's not easy... I have edit'd the build order below to reflect my current build.

The build goes as follows:

10 Depot @wall - > scout

12 Barracks (@wall, finish wall with 2nd Depot when Barracks 100%) -> 1 Marine

13 Gas

15 Orbital Command

@100 gas build a Factory and take your second Gas

@50 gas build a reactor on barracks

Flip the Factory to the reactor and build a tech lab on your barracks.
@400 minerals BUILD YOUR EXPO IN YOUR BASE
4xHellions from your factory*
train stimpack at your barrack's tech lab
land your factory on a new tech lab, train siege mode, and build a barracks on the vacant reactor
build a 3rd barracks w/tech lab and starport w/reactor
upgrade your expo to OC and fly to natural while building 2xbunkers at natural choke

*You MUST keep these 4 hellions alive unless you can kill 10(TEN) drones.  They give you a huge advantage in map control and force units from the zerg player.  They are your answer to the random lings spread all over the map.  They force the zerg player to stay at home, they deny creep spread, they keep the zerg off balance... they are VERY VALUABLE.  Don't throw them away.  If you run into a well defended expo (multiple spine crawlers, queens, roaches, etc) then deny creep, go to the third and park your hellions where they'll burn any drone coming to drop a hatch, etc.  Be as active with these hellions as your own personal control will allow.  I tend to back them off to a safe distance to prevent creep spread for a minute or two and then just park them at the 3rd.  Of course, if you see a weak spot, burn drones and then deny mining opportunities as long as possible.  Also, most zerg mains don't have spines, so if you can run by to the main... go for it.  Just don't do it if you lack confidence in the fact that you'll kill 10 workers.

At this point you're training siege mode, stim, and combat shields.  These are the most important.  If you have the minerals/gas then build a couple engineering bays and train 1/1.

Produce siege tanks from the factory, marines from all barracks, SCVs from both OCs, supply depots, and medivacs from the starport.  When you get your 3rd siege tank w/siege mode it's time to move out.  This push comes around the 10 minute mark.  This is also the time the first mutalisks will hit the field, so put up a turret or two as you're moving out to prevent free SCV kills.  NOTE: if you time this right you'll be at his natural when the mutas pop and they won't be able to leave.

My army typically looks like 20 marines (w/combat sheilds, stim, 1/1), 3 to 4 siege tanks, however many hellions survived, and 2 medivacs.  Any reinforcements are rallied to my natural to prevent any unwanted nonsense from going on while I'm out having fun.  If I need them I'll scoop them up as necessary.  If you've prevented creep spread and been annoying with your hellions you've set yourself up for a nasty timing attack.

When your siege tanks are in range of the spines/hatch siege them up, get in range with your marines, and go to town.  I typically try to hold stim for his reaction.  If it's banes, stim and run past your siege tanks.  If he doesn't change targets and go for the tanks you won't take a single loss.  There's no way he has enough banes at this point to kill the tanks and your bio.  He has to pick the tanks or lose them all for nothing.  If he comes with mass lings, just get back to your siege tanks, stim and murder ALL the things.  Mutas are the best because there's no way he can handle 20 marines with 8 mutas + light lings.  Just don't let him pick off the tanks for free.  If he builds roaches in response to your hellions he'll learn really quickly that combat shield and stimpack on marines with medivac support and 1/1 are a strong counter to un-upgraded roaches.  If he doesn't react, use your medivacs for vision and let the siege tanks do work on static defenses.  Prioritize queens (no more larva), drones (no more cash), then tech (no more army).

Once you feel confident you won't need to split your bio or move your tanks for a second go and scoop up your army from your base and A-move them to your current army.  If he still hasn't quit, build a 3rd at your natural, fly that to your 3rd, and upgrade to a planetary fortress.

Pros and Cons of this build

Pros:

• Keeps the zerg player off balance early game w/hellions.
• Stops lings from gaining map awareness.  
• Keeps zerg forces at home
• Encourages the zerg player to do things that are weak to this build (mutas for harass, roaches to counter hellions, spines)
• Hits the zerg natural as the first Mutas arrive.  There won't be enough.  There's no way he'll be able to repel your attack with even 12 mutas + a few lings queens and spines.  
• Strong macro with early expand + early 3rd
• Great map presence!  Take the fight to his side of the map.

Cons:

• Weak to 1 base play (roach/bane all ins)
• Weak to extremely greedy play if your attack comes any later than 10 minutes (ex. double expo first into mass muta.  You can handle 10 mutas at 10 minutes no problem, but make that 20 and you're in a world of hurt)
• You are relying on upgraded marines, so banelings on creep can be a disaster if they are in proper numbers.

General Tips for TvZ

• Don't wait until you need to split your forces to split your forces.  If you have a ball of marines standing around waiting to do something split them up evenly around the space they are in.  It would be nice if we all could handle 300 actions per minute, but if we can't we can still survive banes with proper foresight.
• Turrets... lots of them... When you move out you are putting your base at risk.  A very very early spire can mean mutas in your base at 10 minutes.  If you wait until the mutas arrive to build turrets you'll end up having to turn around and go back home to clean them up.  Two to four turrets at every base (and around all production facilities... not just your mineral line) WILL turn a small muta ball around.
• If you lose your army in the push and don't cripple him outright his next response will be mass lings to clean up your base.  A few bunkers should be able to turn them around.  If you can build depot walls with bunkers behind (or in) the wall you'll be perfectly safe without sacrificing anything but 25 minerals per bunker.
• SAVE YOUR STIMPACK.  Don't blow stim to do extra damage until you know for sure what you're facing.  If he comes in with banes you want to be able to stim and out run them past your siege tanks.  Over stimming is suicide.  You'll only have 2 medivacs, so don't expect them to heal stim damage too quickly.
• Rally your medivacs to a medivac.  Zerg T1 units can't look up, so you don't really have to worry about medivacs being picked off on the rally unless he has mutas on the field.  If you're moving between 8:30 and 9:00 then you shouldn't have a problem getting 2 extra medivacs to the fight just in time for the engagement.  This goes for Vikings too.  They are easy to "misplace" on the map if you don't have a good rally point.  I really like rallying air to air in TvZ.
• Hold the Xel'Naga watch towers.  Seriously... send something there and know that he'll be sending 4 lings to kill that thing... so choose a thing that can kill 4 lings.  Nothing is worse than watching a replay and seeing that he starts morphing banes the second you move out because he saw it coming and having that cost you the game.
• PRIMARY THE BANES.  If you surprise him with the attack look for morphing banes near his natural.  If you can catch them morphing in hit that STIMPACK and kill them before they kill you.  Put your siege tanks on a separate hotkey and focus those punks from range while stimming behind the tanks with your bio.  This will save your life.
• Upgrade early and often.  3/3 marines are BRUTAL.  They can take on mutas in just about even numbers, they melt bases in small numbers, they are easy to remass and they are cheap.  If you're going for 3/3 at the 15 minute mark you're golden.
• Build more barracks and add attachments when you can.  Even if you're maxed you need to be ready to re-max at a moment's notice.  Remember, once zerg is maxed he's just banking larva.  You can keep up, but you better be prepared early with tons of production facilities.  
• Drop EVERYWHERE.  If the first push fails you're going to need to stay on top of the zerg or he will just expo to every mineral patch on the map.  16 marines and 2 medivacs mean load up and drop.  Don't throw your units away, but don't be afraid to mix it up.  Marines with medivac support can pretty much kill lings 4 to 1.  Just as Dark Templar are the answer to a Protoss who's behind, mass expo is the answer for a "from behind" zerg.  Why?  Because it works.  Don't let it happen.
• After the 10 minute mark be ready for burrowed banes.  Scan in front of your army as you move or bring a raven.  
• If the zerg player has exceptional creep spread build a raven.  Seriously... do it.  Have your raven and 10 or so marines clean up all the creep tumors you can and take back map control.  

Review: Spotify

One thing I love about music is that there is no bottom to the rabbit hole.  That's why services like Pandora and Last.fm are fantastic for when I am in the mood for a not so specific genre of music or if I'd like to hear more but don't know where to start.   But... what happens when only one song, album, or artist will do?  What about setting up your own playlists?  Sharing those playlists with friends?  This is where Spotify comes in.  It's pretty much Napster without all the lawsuits.  You type in an artist, song, etc and if it's on the service (I've only found one obscure track missing so far) you can listen to it as if it's on your hard drive.  As I'm typing this I'm listening to the soundtrack from TRON Legacy... FOR FREE... because why not?  It's free and it sounds cool, so I'm checking it out.

Okay, so they have a billion songs from every artist ever for free?  How do they pay for it?

I've typed and deleted the word "ad revenue" about 20 times because it's just not the case but I'm not sure how else to word it.  They make money off of premium subscribers.  You can pay to have your music commercial free.  "But you said they don't make money off ad revenue!"  Yeah, and I mean it... because EVERY add is for SPOTIFY ITSELF.  I also feel like the longer I listen, the more it plays commercials for itself.  It's basically trying to bully me into paying by breaking up an otherwise beautifully smooth experience with obnoxious self promotion.  The worst part from a business standpoint is that when a real add does come on (maybe 1 out of 10 commercials is for something other than Spotify Premium) I've already tuned it out because I'm so used to not listening to the Spotify Premium commercials.  

The other thing they love to do is make it so you have to click on a full screen add to close the add and interact with the program.  That's just annoying because I NEVER have my music player in the foreground completely.  That means I'm able to see the buttons but can't press them because the center of the screen has an add for SPOTIFY PREMIUM that must be clicked before I can click anything else.

QUIT YER BELLYACHIN!

I get it, no such thing as endless free content... but when you compare the long duration experience of free Spotify vs free Pandora or free last.fm you have a very different experience.  Sure, they all play commercials, but at least Pandora will play a variety of commercials that are for products other than Pandora's premium service.  I tip my hat to thee, Pandora sales department.  I hate having to click "I'm still listening" so often, but that's a minor gripe.

I guess I'm just spoiled by Pandora's ad management.  They make it such a smooth part of their experience. It may be a personal thing, but I don't mind that they are making money by selling my time to these companies and giving me awesome music in return.  It feels like a fair trade.  I will listen to this add for some new car and in return you will find me more songs that I will like.  The Spotify experience so far has been "we're going to make this unbearable until you give us money just to get you to give us money.  We aren't making any money off this commercial, but I bet it ruined the flow of the album you were just listening to... doesn't that suck?  Give us money."  That feels underhanded.  Maybe they are just priming everyone for the day when they have all their add time slots sold, but even if that's the case it sure feels lousy.  

I don't share playlists, I don't integrate with facebook and I have no interest in any of the social apps Spotify has to offer.  This may be affecting my overall opinion of the service, but I'm only interested in what they do best: on demand music... and as it turns out that's good enough.

That being said, if you don't have Spotify on your computer go download it RIGHT NOW.  You may not use it all the time, but when you need Spotify, only Spotify will do.  For example, my wife enjoys Katy Perry.  I've only heard maybe one of her songs before, so in the interest of getting to know what my wife likes I typed "Katy Perry" into the search bar, it gives me a list of her albums with her top hits on top.  I listened to a few songs and moved on.  I didn't have to go out and buy a CD.  I didn't need to purchase a single off itunes.  I just said "you know what?  Let me hear what this chick's all about."  Double click... listen... nothing to lose.