Thursday 4 November 2010

Fast mass and go!

Interview with Jazzybelle



Hello 2on2 players around the world! This week we are interviewing the legend of
2on2 Random Teams. Jazzybelle himself who speaks with his heart and no
hesitation about the game, the balance and the key to success! Not much more to
be said. Im giving you Jazzybelle!




-> AcidRain: Hello Jazzybelle. First of all, tell us something about yourself?
Who is the man behind the success?



-> Jazzybelle: Hi there, my real name is Daniel, 25 years old and a player of
Starcraft Broodwars of course hehe.


- Do you prefer Broodwars over Starcraft 2?



- Hmm that's an interesting question. Actually each game has its own strong and weak points. As a plus for Starcraft 2 I can mention this new rating system that allows you to play only with decent players versus good teams. This was a huge weakness in the first Starcraft since most of the time you lost playing with noobs against noobs. As a plus for Starcraft BW I think micro was much more important there and of course the custom games were interesting when you would play against an Arranged Team. Back in BW I was lucky enough to play vs the top teams. Another advantage of Starcraft BW is that you could play in all different servers (gateways) and play against Koreans for example under the same ladder.



- So about Starcraft 2, how do you feel about random teams overall? What difficulties do you face against arranged teams? And what is the key to success?



- Well under the 2k rating its not that difficult cause you usually face other
random teams as opponents or low ranked arranged teams, but I noticed that once I crossed the 2k ratings I am only facing top arranged teams and often I am favored or the teams are even. That's why you need to communicate a lot at the start; to be sure both are going for the same strategy. For me the key to success is that I am a pure rush player and by rush I don't mean 7pool but a fast mass and go.


- I see, do you find yourself sometimes overcommiting though? Like for example if a baneling bust wouldnt work on fortress, do you have a backup plan?



- Well this is my biggest let's say opportunity to improve. 80% of my games
finish with one opponent dead after my rush.


- Do you count on your ally building a stronger economy or then you would just pause and double expand?



- Usually I press my ally to rush with me so I won't be doubled on my rush and we expand together later on if needed.

- When you are up that high in rating its obvious that you ll be most likely allied with the same people (should it be around 10)? Do you think if that's the case the random team lose the random factor?



- Hmm.. true. I have a lot of skilled players on my friend list. Sometimes I get
the as random partners. But I 'd say it's less than 5% of my games where I get a known ally.


- What problems do you encounter while trying to communicate with your allies?



- Well I think the biggest problem I can have is getting a 1v1 player. You can
notice the huge difference in gameplay. They just "suck" in 2v2 lol. They use to make walls and defend and attack later. They dont share that teamplay spirit at all.


- What do you think about the current state of the game? Are there still flaws like unbeatable cheese or dominant combos after the latest reaper nerf? I mean you dont get to see reaperling anymore.



- That's true. And I really know what I'm saying cause I was a true fan of that
strategy and played it a lot. It really depends on the combo. In 2v2 there are 2 different sizes of measuring. Maps with a common defense and maps with seperate bases.



- Like High Orbit vs Arid Wastes let's say?



- Yeah. In the the first option Terran gets an advantage. In the second option
Zerg with any combination is favorite to win. And here marine-lings or bio-lings are the best rush combos. Even if now I m playing more of PZ as AT I find a good marine-ling rush too hard to counter.


- Do you hit that Stim Timing Attack?



- Well this is the best part of this combo. You can either attack straight away
with ~22 lings and 6-8 marines or you can keep massing and still be good untill the terran gets stim.


- Do you believe those strong rushes would be eliminated if blizzard changed those maps in the ladder pool? Like for example adding more maps with long rush distance, safe naturals and mutual choke points? Would we see more of a Roach play?



- Well I wouldn't like that. This would turn the game into a double 1v1. 2v2 has always been a rush game. The fastest team with the better coordination wins. I dont like those maps you can create fast unbreakable walls. In BW for example the majority of 2v2 games were finished on Tier2. Now on some maps you get to see Colossus, Mutas or Ultras. But regarding your question about roach, on my games I usually play either fast pool or speedling rush or roach rush and slowly roach rush has begun being important on certain stages and against certain combos.


- You mean like vs Double Protoss?



- I mean for example in War Zone or Orbit, I strongly recommend the Zerg to go fast roach against PP/PT/TT. I recently saw a video on youtube about the so called "roach rush" on 34 supply. To me that's kinda slow so I 've been doing the roach rush on 26 supply with a 6 roach army.

- I'm usually doing that +1melee attacks mass lings rush against the zergless combos. You just gather 200 gas then get the speed and the +1 melee really fast from the evolution chamber. Have you tried that build?



- Hmm, no. I usually rush too early so the upgrade won't finish on time.

- 2v2 is overall in the shadows in comparison to 1v1 that gets all the fame even though the gamestyles are so different. What is your view on that? And what lead you to the decision of playing 2v2 over 1v1?



- Well I dont think this will be the long time develpoment of the game. Starcraft is a multiplayer game. Always has been. In Starcraft 1 the team games were much more interesting. I tihnk since it's the beginning people are more focused on 1v1 in order to develop the game. But in the future for sure 2v2s and 3v3s will get all the attention. They are much more spectacular. I can compare this to WoW. Duels are indeed funny but when you play 2s or 3s in Arena that's the real game.

- So your background is WoW PvP?



- Yep

- Did you play any other RTS games other than Starcraft, like Warcraft 3 or Age of Empires?



- Bit of both. Nothing can be compared to Starcraft. Not even WoW. If you want to spell all your time usefully you can play starcraft. In WoW for instance 60% of your time you are loosing time doing other stuff than pure PvPing.

- Well in Starcraft 2 you just hit the queue button and you wait for 2 minutes!



-Exactly.

-So Zerg. Overpowered in 2v2 or just good?



- Haha. Well in Starcraft 1 Protoss was my race. When Starcraft 2 came out, I tried Protoss but they were too slow for my taste so I switched to Zerg. For now I think yes. Any good 2v2 team should have a Zerg player. Zerg is good in any combo and even decent in ZZ.

- So you as a zerg player, whats your advise to the newest 2v2 zerg players? When should people drone and when should they just commit?



- Well as a Zerg player my most important advise is to forget about fast expanding. I can win 95% of the games against a Zerg who is fast expanding. Because 13-15 drones is more than a Zerg needs untill you hit the midgame. So you don't really need a fast expand.

- Do you use an inbase hatchery?



- Yeah. That's more usefull for a Zerg who wants to mass. But still this should
be done after you send your first wave. Double Hatch can be a solution to a lot of games. Once you have double Hatch and double Queen your base is too easy to defend. If you get an expansion its a lot harder. Secondly, Zerglings are very powerful if you can mass them. It's important to save them and not waste them untill you are sure you can win. If you keep sending packs of 6-10 and keeps loosing them lings are a waste. If you can get a critical mass you can easily win. And lastly, Timings are so important. Usually 5-7 seconds is what seperates the win from a lose. If you get there before a baneling is made for example its a win. 10 seconds later its a lose hehe. So you need to keep trying out all the BO to be sure your rush is as fast and effective as possible.


- Any favorite maps?



- Well yeah since I am a rush player I like all the seperate bases maps. In fact I have eliminated War Zone, Twilight Fortress and Tempest from my pool. Though I'd like to see Blizzard added new maps created by motivated people that would promote new strategies. Like for example an isle map.

- Your favorite unit?



- Lings followed closely by mutas.

- Do you remember of any funny or wierd things that happened during one of your games like some stupid ally killing your units?



- Haha I remember one. I was playing at 2100 rating at 4am when few people are online. I got a 1850 AT. My Zerg ally just entered, said a few things and left. After the game I found out he was a bronze with a 7-200 record. But because he left and we were double zerg I won the game and I won a lot of points since they were favored.


- Lol that must have been epic.



- Yeah, but this system really makes a ZZ rush with 1 player really strong. Actually I 've seen many people using this strategy. One leaving fast then the other rushes. But this is a noob tactic for the long run.


- Did you just build identical builds on 2 bases, or just drone with the one fast pool with the other?




- I just droned on one base and produced in the other. They took out the weak one, but it was already late.

- So did you get to see our blog? Do you like it?



- Yeah I did like it. As a suggestion, I'd like to see a forum part for people to be able to comment or open topics.


- I d love to see it grow big and eventually have our very own starcraft 2v2 society.



- Yeah, I d like it to be a pro forum. It's a fact that Europe has really good players nowadays in comparison to the Broodwars era.


- Yeah I think especially on 2v2 we need to have knowledgable people commenting and not just random 1v1 players, a basic reason I called you today on this interview.



- Indeed It would be interesting to have more opinions from the best players and it's really sad we can't compare our playstyle to the Koreans or get to practise with them anymore. I m sure it would be beneficial for both.

- What do you think about the top 2v2 teams, can you compare them to 1v1 proffessionals like the people in Korea, what about the Empire Team (aristeo, cubert) or the American Root gaming team (Axslav and Strifecro), did u get the chance to play with any of them?



- I 've played against Cubert but since my ally was random it's hard to get a final conclusion. They still have a lot of wins over me but I will meet them in Arranged Teams several times so it's still unclear. In comparison to 1v1, this is a totally different game. I'm still surprised Zerg are getting so many wins in 1v1 esp the Koreans. I can see Zerg being favored in Team games while Terran in 1v1 for example.


- Any special shoutouts to your fans out there and the people that support you?



- Well I hope I can play max in the future and I promise that pretty soon I ll be forming a very strong arranged team.


- Do you have plans to join the ESL Tuesday's 2on2 cups?



- Well I have some good partners but truth to be told I didn't know about this event haha! But for sure I will be part of it in the future.

- Arlight Daniel, thanks again for the interview! Your input was more that welcome and we hope to see more from you soon!



- Hehe same. Was nice talking to you and hope we ll meet ingame again. Success with your blog.


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2 comments:

  1. well very good interview gj any knows where can find shoutcasts or replays from this guy? -AoD-

    ReplyDelete
  2. Soon there will be a replay rection added, where you will be able to find replays of Jazzy and other top 2v2 Arranged Teams or Random 2v2 players!

    ReplyDelete