This is not Warcraft in space! Starcraft on FFR

[Relambrien]

After reading the other Starcraft thread, I thought it would be a good idea to make another one, with all the general info you could need in the first post. If you're here, then I assume you already know what Starcraft is and how it works. If you don't, then I recommend visiting this website for more information. This thread mainly serves as a way for Starcraft players on FFR to find out who else plays, meet up, and play some games!

However, many Starcraft players may not know about the professional side of Starcraft, and that's where this next part comes in. Information on meeting up can be found in the second post.

Professional Starcraft gaming
In South Korea, professional video-gaming is an extremely popular sport, with two television channels (MBC and OGN) dedicated entirely to it. Starcraft is by far the most popular competitive game, even though others are also shown.

Currently, there are 12 professional Starcraft teams:

Samsung KHAN
KTF MagicNs
Lecaf Oz
SK Telecom T1
STX SouL
OGN Sparkyz
MBCgame Hero
Air Force ACE
Hanbitstars
eSTRO
CJ Entus
WeMade Fox

They consist of extremely talented Starcraft players, practicing hours on end in a "stable" environment--the same type of environment used to train Japanese sumo wrestlers. The players all live together in a large house where all their needs are taken care of, allowing them to train without worrying about sustenance, paying the bills, or anything like that.

These 12 teams participate in four major Starcraft leagues:

MBCgame Starleague (MSL)
Ongamenet Starleague (OSL)
Shinhan Bank Proleague (Proleague)
Averatec-Intel Classic (various nicknames)

The Averatec-Intel Classic is in its first year, but is not sanctioned by the Korean e-Sports Association (KeSPA), and thus only seven teams sent players.

Each league has its own structure and rules, which I won't get into here. But they are all very popular, the finals drawing thousands in a live audience, and many more watching at home.

How can I watch?
There are various media players you can use to stream these events straight to your computer. The Daum PotPlayer, the GOMtv Media Player, a p2p program called TVants, and occasionally a VLC stream provided by a community member can all be used to watch these games. I made a tutorial video about downloading and using Daum, and you can view it here. That link will probably give a 404 until the video is done encoding.

Keep in mind, however, that these games are played during Korean prime-time, so viewers elsewhere may have difficulty finding an ideal time to watch. For instance, East Coast Americans will often see games start at 1AM or 5:30 AM. Europeans, then, will see games between 4AM and 1PM, depending on where you are.

However, the YouTube accounts Nevake and Jon747 upload videos of the games not long after their completion, so you can catch them there. In addition, there are many English commentators providing commentary of the games.

In addition to Internet streaming, DirecTV and Dish Network provide Korean international programing. DirecTV offers a package with MBC, Dish Network offers OGN. They're around $25 each a month, though, so if you've got money to burn, go for it.

Fansites
There are many popular Starcraft fansites, each with their own merit.

http://www.teamliquid.net - The premier BW fansite. Provides a wealth of information on both playing and watching Starcraft at a high level. They have so much influence, they've even convinced professional Starcraft player Sea[Shield] to play their community, streaming the matches for entertainment. In addition, they have contacted professional team CJ Entus and convinced them to sell uniform t-shirts outside of Korea.

http://www.gosugamers.net - Covers both the high-level non-Korean ("foreigner") scene and professional gaming scene, not just the games, but the news as well. Has a reputation for a less-than-great community, however.

http://www.scforall.com - Videos and news coverage aplenty. Definitely a great source of progaming news.

http://www.sc2gg.com - The home of English-commentated Starcraft. If you're looking for English commentary, this is where you want to go. You can check their homepage for a list of commentators, as well.

www.iccup.com - The International Cyber Cup, the premier ladder for BW gaming. Even the lowest ranked are at a high level.

Hopefully more of FFR will join up and play some Starcraft, as it is undoubtedly one of the greatest games ever made.

[Relambrien]

Playing Starcraft with friends
There are a few ways in which you can play with other FFR members. The first is by using BattleNet. On both US West and US East, the channel "op FFR_BW" is set for our use. You can come in, shoot the breeze, or organize games there. Generally, we're going to use the US West channel as the main channel. But if a couple people want to move to east for a game then they can meet up in that channel to avoid the hassle of PMing each other.

You can also use a program called Hamachi. Download it here. When you run the installation program, make sure you choose Hamachi Basic. It's free and does everything you need it to for playing SC. Once you've got it installed, you can set up a username for it and get your Hamachi IP address. Then, in the bottom-right-hand corner, click on "Create or join networks." Click "join," and for the network, type in FFR_BW, and the password is "synth." If this network is full, then try to join FFR_BW1 with the same password. If it doesn't exist, feel free to make it. If it's full, go to FFR_BW2, etc. Just make sure that if you create a new network, you follow that convention and use "synth" as the password. That way people can come in and join it.

Once you're connected, you'll see a list of others that are connected as well. You can message them and ask for a game, or set a game up another way, doesn't matter. Anyway, once that's done, someone needs to host. Go to Multiplayer, then click on the Network option that has UDP in it. Choose "Create Game," set the game up, and hit OK.

You'll be in the lobby. Contact the other person to let them know you're in, then they'll find the game (it'll be called by your character name), and join it. Voila, you have your own game on LAN latency, without the lag that Bnet has.

I'll make a more thorough set of instructions once this thread is up and running.

FFR Starcraft players
To add your name to this list, post using the following format:

Name: Your FFR name
Race: The race you play
Skill: A short bit about your skill
US East: Your Bnet East ID
US West: Your Bnet West ID
Europe: Your Bnet Europe ID
Asia: Your Bnet Asia ID
iCCup: Your iCCup ID

So, let's get started:

Current number of players: 11

Relambrien
Race: Protoss
Skill: D- iCCup
US East: Relambrien
US West: Relambrien
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup: Cobalt

Saik0Shinigami
Race: All
Skill:
US East: Saik0Shinigami
US West: Saik0Shinigami
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:

Mr.Nothing
Race: Protoss
Skill: Leisure Play
US East: MrNothing
US West: MrNothing
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:

l2awr
Race: All
Skill: C+ PGT
US East: poke]ball[
US West: Bite(o.O)Me
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:

Xception704
Race: Mainly Protoss, some terran, rarely zerg
Skill: Completely new to low money
US East: Abso1uteZero
US West: Abso1uteZero
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:

Sinoya
Race: Terran
Skill: Somewhat competitive but lazy. C-/C iCCup
US East: Sinoya
US West: Sinoya
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:

hi19hi19
Race: Protoss
Skill:
US East: TheBeegFeesh
US West:
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:

zhul4nder
Race: Protoss
Skill: nub.
US East: zhul4nder
US West: zhul4nder
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:

EOP_MAGNITUDE
Race: Protoss
Skill: extreme nub
US East: M4GNITUDE
US West: M4GNITUDE
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:

zergovermind2006
Race: Zerg/protoss
Skill: i play for fun
US East: Exzyro
US West:
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:

Wineandbread
Race: Protoss
Skill: Bad-Mediocre
US East: BlademasterX
US West:
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:
__________________

Replays
If enough people play each other, then we can host replays of inter-FFR matches. Be sure to save any replays of matches you play against other FFR members, and upload them to RepDepot.net. Its interface is very simple, much like imageshack. Contact me with the link to the replays you've uploaded (try to contact me only when you have 5 or 10 new replays up; a PM for every single one would be unnecessary), and I'll add them to this post.

Replay List

Format:

P1 Forum Name/P1 ID (race) vs. P2 Forum Name/P2 ID (race) @ map

August 12, 2008
Wineandbread/BlademasterX (P) vs. l2awr/Bite(o.O)Me (P) @ Python 1.3
Relambrien/Relambrien (P) vs. l2awr/Bite(o.O)Me (T) @ Python 1.3
Relambrien/Relambrien (P) vs. zergovermind2006/Exzyro (Z) @ Python 1.3
We had one other replay from today, but it got corrupted during upload so it can't be shown. It was l2awr playing a friend of his.

So what are you waiting for, get playing!

[Mr.Nothing]

Name: Mr.Nothing
Race: Protoss
Skill: Leisure Play
US East: MrNothing
US West: MrNothing
Europe: N/A
Asia: N/A
iCCup: What?

[Relambrien]

Originally Posted by Mr.Nothing

iCCup: What?

iCCup is the main ladder used by Starcraft players. It's filled with really competitive people at a high skill, so if you're just playing for fun, it's nothing to worry about.

[fido123]

God damn I need to find my discs >_<

[l2awr]

As of now poke]ball[ akas Bite(o.O)Me, Noir
Race: All races, all maps
Skill: Never played iccup, but id say im about c+ pgt right now.
US East: poke]ball[
US West: Bite(o.O)Me
Europe:
Asia:
iCCup:

Originally Posted by fido123

God damn I need to find my discs >_<

If you have a cd key then you can download it off of their website.

[Xception704]

Name: Xception704
Race: Mainly Protoss, some terran, rarely zerg
Skill: Completely new to low money.
US East: Abso1uteZero
US West: Abso1uteZero
Europe: N/A
Asia: N/A
iCCup: N/A

[Sinoya]

Name: Sinoya
Race: Terran
Skill: Somewhat competitive but lazy. C-/C iCCup
US East: Sinoya
US West: " "

[hi19hi19]

Name: hi19hi19
Race: P
Skill: n/a
US East: TheBeegFeesh


I'd love to play anyone really. Even good people who'd stomp me. Expect arbiters


EDIT- I'll probably make a US West account with the same name someday.
EDIT 2- It'd be interesting to have people's average APM, if they know it. Mine's like 100ish, more if I'm motivated. Pretty noob though ^___^
EDIT 3- You might want to add scforall.com to the site list. They've got a lot of interviews and stuff, sometimes I go there.
EDIT 4- You might also want to link to mapdori or the pro map pack thread on TL so we can all download a reasonably balanced map set to play with.

[Relambrien]

Originally Posted by hi19hi19

EDIT 2- It'd be interesting to have people's average APM, if they know it. Mine's like 100ish, more if I'm motivated. Pretty noob though ^___^
EDIT 3- You might want to add scforall.com to the site list. They've got a lot of interviews and stuff, sometimes I go there.

I don't think too many people here are going to know their average APM, haha. I'm around 100, too.

I'll add scforall. I knew I was forgetting something.

[Sinoya]

Saiko, when I played you, your apm was in the 50's. lol

[l2awr]

If I play to play then my apm is usually 130s. If I play lazy and careless it's like 110ish. If I spammed I'm sure I could keep it in the high 100s lol

[zhul4nder]

oo add me

Name: zhul4nder
Race: protoss
Skill: nub.
US East: zhul4nder
US West: zhul4nder
Europe: -none-
Asia: -none-
iCCup: -none-

[Xception704]

My APM is usually around 700.

800 if I'm drunk.

Yeah Jaedong's a noob. Nada's 400 APM? Hah what a noob.



... no my APM is probably like 70 and under lawl.

[Relambrien]

Alright, this thread is getting inactive, so I'm here to KICK IT UP A NOTCH, BAM!

We need to think of a time we can all meet and play together regularly. How's 10PM EST every day for a typical meeting time? Obviously you don't have to show up, but it'd be nice to know that anybody who can play will show up at that time.

[l2awr]

Originally Posted by Relambrien

Alright, this thread is getting inactive, so I'm here to KICK IT UP A NOTCH, BAM!

We need to think of a time we can all meet and play together regularly. How's 10PM EST every day for a typical meeting time? Obviously you don't have to show up, but it'd be nice to know that anybody who can play will show up at that time.

If you want to 2v2, I'm sure I can get my friend on around that time most days.

[Xception704]

Here's the iCCup map pack if anyone needs it:

http://iccup.com/iccgetfile/47/

[Waffl3]

What apm?
and im really bad, like i usually only play money maps. Would i be good enough to join this?

[Xception704]

Originally Posted by Waffl3

What apm?
and im really bad, like i usually only play money maps. Would i be good enough to join this?

APM stands for Actions Per Minute.

The higher the APM you have, the better your multi-tasking except in the case when you spam right click a lot.

[l2awr]

go on and add Bite(o.O)Me on east