All information contained in this thread is the product of a project I started a long time ago. I wanted a fairly complete set of basic Starcraft Information that could be provided on demand to a fairly new player wanting to get into competitive play. While this does not contain everything it contains *A LOT* Credit is due were it is deserved. Information gleaned from other sites is categorized as such with the authors name/the site it was derived from. All posted as used are copied in their entirety. This was put compiled by Iruian @ sc2gg.com Written by Salv Guide for fast improvement Introduction Improving your matchups and your overall game can be difficult. Many don’t know where to begin, or the best way to go about it. Sadly, I see people in SC101 that aren’t going about this the correct way. You can call this just my opinion, and Dees or Iruian may disagree, but what I am about to outline are what I think are the best ways to improve yourself at a fast pace. Firstly, you must recognize the resources that are available to you. Your most important resource is your teacher. Your teacher is a race specific wealth of knowledge, a question you have about a certain build order, or how to counter a specific unit combination can all be answered by your teacher. I don’t think many realize what an opportunity this is. You have the ability to ask and receive answers for any concerns you may possibly encounter. I think many of you realize the knowledge of your teacher, but do not take advantage. I will talk about that point in a moment. The other important resource is iCCup ladder. I haven’t checked all the players so far, but for the ones I have checked, I have yet to see a person who has played twenty of more games; this is a problem. I can easily say that if I was trying to improve, I would play at least twenty games a week. I realize this is not possible for everyone, but one of the requirements for SC101 was to have a couple hours every day to play; this is the equivalent of four to five games at least. There is no excuse. Everyone needs to understand the important of the three sessions we have a week. These weekly sessions should not be the only time you gain knowledge or play an abundance of games. If you find that this statement rings true to you, I feel you are going about SC101 all wrong. Back to iCCup; you have the opportunity to play a one on one-- versus another player whose goal is to win. In other words, a competitive game. These iCCup games will test you as a player and expose your strengths and weaknesses; please take advantage of iCCup, it is there to help you. The weekly sessions serve a purpose that I don’t see many players taking advantage of. During the week, you should be playing competitive games, generally iCCup is best-- but please do not play players that you train with all the time; they know you too well. You want to play random players, people you have never met. You play games and you will get to see what your strong suits are and your weak areas. You can tell your best matchup and your worst matchup. Do you have problems with certain builds? Why is that? What can you do to change this? These are the questions you should bring with yourself to each session. The player who can do this is the one who will leave SC101 a better player. Think of SC101 sessions as pit-stops where you can refuel, clear up some things that are puzzling you and learn some new tricks before heading back out to face the competition. If this seems like too much you, you are most likely in the wrong program. What You Need to do as a Player As a Starcraft player that is aiming to improve themselves, you must have an open mind to your games. When you lose, there was a reason. Was it your build order? Did you macro slip? Could better micro have saved you? Was your strategy sufficient? Did you properly scout? Questions like these are the ones you can ask you teacher if you are stumped, but usually you can tell by yourself what the problem was. Whenever you lose a game, make the replay right after and watch it on fastest or fastest times two. You want to catch what the turning points in the game were. Did you lose a lot to harass? Did he proxy build you? Could better scouting have solved the problem? Did you have a hard time killing his combination of units? Were you building at all times? You can narrow down the problem to a few situations usually and then address what happened. For example: You push out with templars and zealots PvZ. You engage an army of hydralisks(1) or lurkers(2) You lose the battle and are countered You lose the game These are very basic, but let’s go over this. You move out with templars and zealots. First question, was this the correct choice? Yes? Than continue. No? Why not? Let’s say you attack and he has lurkers. You can contribute your choice of units to failure to scout. Do you know what you should have looked for? If not, use your resource; ask your teacher. Once you know what you should have looked for, do that next game and adjust accordingly. This is how you improve, making mistakes, but learning from them. On the flip side, did you move out and engage an amount of hydralisk? Than your unit combination was correct. Did he have too many units? This is scouting and macro. Next time, focus on making a couple more gateways and scouting before attacks, than this problem will be easier to deal with next time. Our Responsibilities as a Teacher This is very general and not directed at any one, but I like to speak for Iruian and Dees when I say that we can only help you as much as you let us. If you consistently post replays, ask for advice and ask questions, your fulfilling your obligation and we can do what we signed up to do – help out and teach. The players who are simply waiting for good advice to be thrown at them are not going to improve. They may improve a slight bit, but you’re not taking advantage of the program, and that’s what I would like to see. Conclusion In conclusion, I want to see more replays posted by the students, more games played on iCCup, have questions ready when you come to the weekly sessions, let yourself be open to learning and most importantly, let us help you. We signed up as teachers because we enjoy helping other players and want give back to the community, but SC101 is a two way street, so it’s about time every one learned how to play ball. Dear reader, Here's a compilation of tips for beginners who are interested in learning basic principles behind Starcraft. The post is long but you don't need to read every part to get started. Just look at whichever sections are relevant to what you want to learn; e.g. the latter half of the post is mostly just explanation of theory that you may or may not be interested in. As a general caveat, there are exceptions to every rule, so I'm not claiming these are always the right thing to do. They are just good principles to follow absent any compelling reason not to; as you get better, you'll start recognizing when to deviate from certain rules. THE "BIG FIVE" BASIC PRINCIPLES Here are the five basic skills that I think every new player should start out trying to get decently good at. 1) Always be building peons (SCV/drone/probe) from your town hall (town hall (CC/hatchery/Nexus) and put the peons to use on minerals/gas. Don't ever stop. Your CC/Nexus should always be flashing, your main hatchery should always have at least one drone building from larva. If you need to queue up peons, do it, but try to avoid having to do that since it ties up resources. When you get gas, typically put a maximum of 4 peons on it if unless it's far away from your hall. 2) Never be held back by your supply limit. Always build supply early enough in advance so that you're not waiting for your next depot/overlord/pylon. E.G. Generally you should start building your first depot/overlord/pylon when your supply reads 8. In later game, build it much earlier if you're pumping units faster. 3) Try to keep your resources as close to zero as possible by spending whatever income you're getting. If you have a barraks, make sure it's always making marines. If it's making marines and you have leftover money in the bank, build another barraks or tech, expand, etc. Just don't let your money sit in the bank. 4) Dont make too much static defense (cannons/bunkers/turrets/sunkens/etc.). Build those minimally. E.G. 2-3 cannons is about enough for each base you have, use mobiles for the rest of your defense. If you follow steps 1-3 well, you should not have to build any static defense early.