StarCraft 2 Quick Match
Two by two, as a matter of fact. Hurrah! Hurrah!
As our time in the Beta has gone on, we’ve seen a number of our friends be fortunate enough to receive a Beta key as well. Some are almost professional-level gamers, some have no experience with RTS games at all, and some are very much like ourselves.
Dedicated, earnest, but frankly not that good.
Oh, it’s not that we don’t try, it’s just that somehow we seem to come out on the losing end every time, especially when Blizzard tells us we’re favoured. Sure, that mechanic is interesting – we’re sure it gives no end of thrills to be victorious against a superior force, but how do you think it feels to get owned by someone you were supposed to beat handily?
It feels like suck, in case you were wondering.
So the other night, we suggested to our similarly-skilled friend that we give a 2v2 a match try. We’ve been religiously sticking to 1v1 because we’re not sure we could endure the constant string of “l2p noob” comments coming from our randomly selected team-mate.
Our friend of similar skill has actually been doing almost the exact opposite as us and playing a great deal of 2v2. She tells us that it is split 50/50 between helpful players and those who would be right at home at the World Douchebag Convention, conveniently held on the Jersey shore everyday when men with no shirts on and white sunglasses around their necks gather to homo-erotically troll for women.
Ahem.
In the interests of science, fun, and “why the hell not-ed-ness”, we decided to give a few 2v2 placement matches a go with our friend. This process was made easy by Battle.net, which runs a slick friends list/invite interface that got us up and running in minutes.
It also helped that we were using Ventrilo to talk to each other, making the coordination of our attacks much easier. Although Blizzard supports voice chat over Battle.net, all indication is that this is something they do not excel at.
But.
The game. Well, games. We played three games, and lost every damn one. The only one we actually came close to winning was the one in which we were not favoured, so again, thanks for that, Blizzard.
Regardless of our win/loss record and our almost assured place in the copper league, we had a lot of fun. Playing a 2v2 match is a very different experience than a 1v1, and you get a great deal of extra information, which is nice.
Not only can you see the base belonging to your ally, but you can also ping the map to let them know where things of importance are taking place.
As well, you can see what every single one of their units sees, so if they go on a recon mission, you get to see what they find. You also have the ability to transfer resources to your ally using a nice little interface in the top right hand corner of the UI. Of course, you also get an “ally” chat channel, accessed simply by pressing enter, but actual talking is far more efficient.
Not efficient enough to win, but that’s ok. The point is that it was a whole lot of fun co-coordinating attacks with another player, and seeing that many units on screen.
When we say “that many” we mean “thousands of Zerg coming to kill us oh God we’re all gonna die”, but it was a hell of a thing to see.
We’ve never tried 3v3 or 4v4, but those would all be utter madness. Frankly, we didn’t expect to like 2v2, but it surprised us by playing in such a totally differ manner than 1v1, and it was nice change from getting pwned on our own. Having someone to share the pwnage with somehow made it more bearable.
So copper league here we come, but we’re not the kind of ants to take this lying down.
We’ll…crawl, and stuff. Yeah, you better watch out.
Hurrah. Hurrah.
