I must say, i love this game.... after playing the 5 placement games it put me in the silver league ( 2nd hardest ) not bad for not just playing 5 games....LOL
add me people, iambeast.seriously
I thought the upper tiers were gold and platinum and silver was the average league that pretty much everyone makes?
Me though? I probably would barely make bronze. I don't know how to expand in Starcraft. I just end up turtling and then losing economically.
Q. How do your placement matches calculate which league you will be joining?
A. During your placement matches we match you against players from a wide variety of players and skill levels and we watch the results; whether you win or lose. From this, we are able to determine your ability and place you in a league that we believe to be appropriate for your level of play.
Q. How do we move up in rank in your division? For example, from rank 51 to rank 44.
A. Simply by competing with other players and winning. However, it is important to remember that the individual matches themselves can vary in points awarded based on the rated difficulty of your opponent.
Example: Player A may have a win-loss ratio of 19-17 and be ranked in the Silver League at 35; while player B may have a win-loss ratio of 18-19, but because of the difficulty of some of those matches (say playing against Gold League players) he either received more points for a win or lost less for a loss.
Q. How do players move down in rank on the ladder? For example, from rank 44 to rank 51.
A. This is done simply by losing matches. You are ranked relative to everyone in your division within your league. The amount of points you lose per match is comparable to how points are calculated when you win. If you lose to someone who is rated higher than you, you should lose less points then if you were to lose to someone who was rated lower than you.
Q. What is the relevance of the Favored indicator and how does that effect the points distributed from winning or losing a match?
A. The Favored indicator helps give you an idea of whether the contender you’re pitted against is considered to be even with you, challenging to you, extremely challenging to you or not a challenge.
Currently there is a known bug where the score screen will display a level of you or your opponent being favored that's incorrect. The loading screen however shows the correct level of 'favoritism'.
You can use the level of 'favoritism' to gauge the number of points you are likely to gain or lose after the match depending on the result.
Q. What are the league ranks?
A. Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. In that order. There is also the practice league for player's starting out and there may be other special leagues created in the future, such as an invite-only pro league.
Q. How does a player move laterally from one division to an adjacent division in the same metallic league? (For Example, From Division 5 Silver League to Division 4 Silver League.)
A. In theory, they shouldn't. There have been some select cases where this has happened, but this is a known issue in the current beta build and is being looked into.
Q. Do the different numbered divisions indicate various levels of skill; is 4 a slightly tougher division than 5?
A. No. The divisions are sectioned off so that we have the appropriate amount of people in each.
Q. How does a player move from one league to another? (For Example: from Silver league to Gold.)
A. After you’ve finished your initial placement, the system continues to review your performance and determines what league you should be placed in based on those reviews. The time and frequency of these reviews is kept hidden.
Q. Are matches ever made between different leagues? (For Example: A Gold league player playing against a Silver league player in a rated match.)
A. Yes, you may be matched up against players from different leagues to test your skill. So be on your guard and play your best in every match.
Q. What is the bonus pool and how are bonus points acquired?
A. The Bonus Pool (incorrectly called "Rested Points" in some parts of the UI) is an accumulation of points that every player receives whether they're online and playing or not. They're essentially used as a means to help give a player a catch-up boost if they haven't played in a while. The pool does have a cap but it increases slowly until the end of a season.
Q. How is the bonus pool used in competitive play?
A. When you achieve victory against another player, you are awarded a certain number of points. The Bonus Pool points will match the number of points you received for winning.
For example: If you were to have a Bonus Pool of 30 and you win a match that would normally give you 10 points, points will then be pulled from your Bonus Pool to match those 10 points and you'll be awarded 20 points for winning that game. Your bonus pool will then sit at 20. (We're aware of an issue your bonus pool not displaying properly in some parts of the UI).
2v2:
Q. Are the gains and losses in the 2v2 game type higher than that in 1v1?
A. No, the gains and losses are the same as 1v1.
Q. Are 2v2 ranks counted individually or in pairs? For example: If Player A plays with Player B and their team is ranked 2, is there another ranking for when Player A plays with Player C?
A. Yes. Every pair is ranked individually. Of course, only after finishing the 10 placement matches.
Q. How are ratings calculated for 2v2? Is it an average of the two players or cumulative?
A. Each pairing of players for arranged 2v2 matches carries its own rating. If you participate in 2v2 random, you would have your own individual ranking. Matches that include 2v2 random players average the rating of the two players and compare it to their opponents rating.
Sounds so sick. Stoked to get ranked.
Last edited by MonsieurFish; 05-01-2010 at 09:04 PM.
I really don't know if my computer is a HP pavilion dv2000 or dv2700.
On the top right of my screen it says dv2000, but on the bottom on a sticker with the serial code any everything it states dv2700.
I'd be pretty hesitant to jump in right away if only for what looks like a lack of a dedicated graphics card. Not that you can't run it with a more recent intel graphics chip because I was able to load a game and play for a few minutes when i switched my dedicated graphics chip off (Radeon 3400) on my laptop. I'm just not sure it would be able to keep the frame rate up in a more heated battle.
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I'm completely opposite - not a huge fan of random multiplayer gaming. Course, my enormous suckatude at Starcraft factors into this...
I'm now have a record of 1-6. And the one win was due to disconnection.
I'm only a top silver, low gold player, but some of the biggest mistakes I've noticed that are easily practiced and will help are the following:
1) Macro - make sure you're not stockpiling any more than 500 minerals and 200gas. If you find yourself having too much money, build another production building, research upgrades, and just keep spending! The hardest time to spend is when you are attacking. Often you'll be so focused on an attack, that when you finish, you come back to an empty base and 2000 minerals. If you can force yourself to keep building during an attack and maintain your effectiveness, it will swing games your way. This is especially true if you win the initial battle with a small group of surviving units. If you reinforce that group mid-battle, that would be the game right there. This is in contrast to letting that group die off when the enemy rebuilds some units.
2) Keep building workers: You need ~25 workers to mine your base with maximum efficiency. Then you consider you will have some that are building, the possibility of expansion, and it makes sense to just keep making more. Many newbies build about 15 workers and never build another the rest of the game. Most pro games (like the replay that Hack posted) has both players upwards of 60 workers in two bases. Knowing when to stop to go lair/orbital command is a bit more advanced (and has no correct answer), but it is something to keep in mind.
3) Units are key! It's nice to have lots of gas and get high quality units, but often, low tech units are nice and can be used throughout the game. They can also be used to stop an early rush as well. So if you're protoss, get at least 5-6 zealots, for zerg, get some lings/roaches early, terran build marines/marauders. Of course, in the early game you have to balance out your economy with that of your military, but I find most people will focus too much on economy and get steamrolled by an early attack. A caveat here is that you may lose some games to people that tech fast, and your units will slow you down a bit (most people in low leagues either rush or turtle+tech to carriers), but it will help you start learning, and then later on once you're more familiar with the possibilities, allow you to read and react a lot better.
I don't know. I still find 1v1 to be really stressful, but just these three things will help a lot in 2v2, because early game you'll have the units to support your ally, and later on, you'll always maintain enough units to help out on an attack or defence because of good macro, even if your micro/strategy isn't perfect.
I'd be pretty hesitant to jump in right away if only for what looks like a lack of a dedicated graphics card. Not that you can't run it with a more recent intel graphics chip because I was able to load a game and play for a few minutes when i switched my dedicated graphics chip off (Radeon 3400) on my laptop. I'm just not sure it would be able to keep the frame rate up in a more heated battle.
His laptop has dedicated Nvidia graphics (NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS - can use up to 895MB of the system memory) if it is the dv2700 but it seems to vary. He'll have to figure out what's actually in his notebook if he has a dv2000 or dv2700.
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 05-02-2010 at 03:55 PM.
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Im thinking that it is a dv2700. When I right click Computer in the start menu and goto properties it tells me that it is a dv2700.
Is there anyway for me to find out for sure?
How would I be able to tell what kind of graphics card is in my system?
Im thinking that it is a dv2700. When I right click Computer in the start menu and goto properties it tells me that it is a dv2700.
Is there anyway for me to find out for sure?
How would I be able to tell what kind of graphics card is in my system?
Do exactly what you did, right click on Computer and goto Properties. Then goto the Hardware tab. Then press the Device Manager button.
Your videocard will be under Display Adapters.
I know SC2 is very scalable, you can put it to very low graphics which would almost get to you to Warcraft 3 type graphics from the screenshots I've seen. My crappy netbook can play Warcraft 3.
It's actually not bad I think (for a laptop graphics card). Here is a guy with an 8400M GT (only slightly faster) playing SC2 with all high details. It would be smoother if you lower the graphics a bit.
There are tons of modern games (Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Crysis, Fallout 3, etc.) being played on that graphics card. If you have the 8400M, I think you are perfectly fine. http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...=8400M+GS&aq=f
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 05-02-2010 at 05:53 PM.
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I don't really know what I have, I did what you suggested and this is what is listed: Mobile intel 965 express chipset family.
I tried googling what this is and what all it entails, but that didn't really tell me much.
I don't really know what I have, I did what you suggested and this is what is listed: Mobile intel 965 express chipset family.
I tried googling what this is and what all it entails, but that didn't really tell me much.
Sadly it looks like you have a dv2000 and not a dv2700 in that case. That's Intel graphics (I think X3100 is the model) which is not very good.
It's lower end and half the speed of the 8400M. That's what happens with notebooks, often the ones that are a few bucks cheaper end up with really low end graphics because most people don't check.
I have the 15" i7 macbook pro... Will i be able to play this on the highest settings?
It has a GeForce GT 330M, you will probably will be able to use highest settings but no antialiasing.
Guys, if you want to know if your hardware will run SC2 and how it looks, just do a youtube search of your hardware and Starcraft 2. There's a good chance it's on there or something similar.
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