Newcomer Learner Competitor Advanced
The short version
The Berkeley course taught models, not build orders. A model tells you why the bigger army wins by more than it should, why your army melts in a choke, and why the enemy is always what you saw plus what you did not.
These guides teach the same things in our own words, with the arithmetic checked rather than copied. Each one opens with the short version, shows you the idea in a moment you have lived, and closes with one sentence to carry into your next game.
Two depths, one page
Every guide reads straight through for someone who wants the idea. The derivation and the working are one tap away, and the site remembers which way you like them. Nothing is hidden behind a second page, and nothing is dumbed down: the maths is there, folded up, for the reader who wants to argue with it.
Where to start
Pick the row that sounds like you. A guide can appear under more than one, because the same idea is worth different things at different ratings.
Newcomer
Fewer than about twenty recorded games, unrated or provisional, APM under sixty. One idea a page, and something to try tonight.
- T1 Everything is a resource Minerals are the least interesting thing you spend. Attention is the scarcest thing you have. Every decision is a conversion, and every conversion costs time.
- T6 Eyes, ears and hands: the four jobs a unit does What a unit is for besides fighting, how Brood War's damage system really works, and why one upgrade sometimes removes a whole hit and sometimes does nothing at all.
- T9 Macro is units you can use A bank is not power. Macro is not mining, it is spending, and the test of an economy is whether it produced units that were in the right place at the right time.
- T13 How to read a replay A method that works at any rank: one pass for flow, three things you did well, three you did badly, and exactly one change. Then the half of the analysis that happens before the game starts.
- T14 Losing well Name the one thing that decided the game, then stop. Morale and stamina are resources like any other, and a series is a different game from a match.
- T15 Players worth watching, and what to take from each Twenty minutes to put a style to every name in the commentary, and to pick the one player whose habits fix your weakness.
Learner
You know one build, you are rated, your APM is somewhere between sixty and a hundred and twenty. You lose fights you thought you should win.
- T2 Dead units do not shoot Why the bigger army wins by more than it should, why reinforcing piecemeal loses, and why concentrating your damage is worth more than any other habit in a fight.
- T3 Flux: chokes, arcs and the surround How much of your army is actually firing right now. Shape decides it, terrain decides it, and it decides fights that unit counts say you should win.
- T4 Scouting is subtraction The enemy is what you saw plus what you did not. Information expires at the rate they mine, and the frontier of what they could have is a straight line, not a guess.
- T7 What micro actually is Firing the most weapons for the longest period of time. One definition, five corollaries, and a way to decide whether micro or macro deserves the next ten seconds of your attention.
- T10 Your APM is a budget You have a fixed number of actions for the whole game. Spend them where they return the most, and buy work you will not have to do again.
- T11 Attack what does not fight back Target selection at the level of the whole map. Economy and production give you something for nothing; armies do not. Harassment is not aggression, it is arithmetic.
- T12 Countering A counter is not a unit. It is a relationship with a price and a deadline, and the right amount of it is usually less than you think.
Also for you, from the rows above: Everything is a resourceEyes, ears and hands: the four jobs a unit doesMacro is units you can useHow to read a replayLosing wellPlayers worth watching, and what to take from each
Competitor
A stable rating, and you play the matchup on purpose. You want a decision rule and the working behind it.
- T5 Deception is bought Every lie costs something real. Score what it cost and what it bought, and a bluff stops being a personality trait and starts being a purchase.
- T8 Count your army in minerals Supply is the wrong unit. Pick the currency that is actually scarce, put your army in it, and a fight you were going to guess about becomes a calculation.
Also for you, from the rows above: Everything is a resourceDead units do not shootFlux: chokes, arcs and the surroundScouting is subtractionWhat micro actually isYour APM is a budgetHow to read a replayLosing wellPlayers worth watching, and what to take from each
Advanced
Top of the ladder, or trying to get there. You want the numbers, the method and the places where the old model breaks.
Also for you, from the rows above: Everything is a resourceDead units do not shootFlux: chokes, arcs and the surroundDeception is boughtWhat micro actually isCount your army in mineralsHow to read a replayLosing wellPlayers worth watching, and what to take from each
How to use a guide
Read the short version first. If it already matches how you play, skip to the last section and take its one sentence into your next game. If it does not, read the whole page once, then open the lab it links and run the numbers yourself.
A timestamp chip next to a claim about a lecture opens the recording at that second, so you can hear it explained. A "Still true", "Updated" or "Careful" box tells you how the idea holds up in the game as it is played today, and warns you where a common answer is wrong.
Then play. One idea per game is plenty. When it stops needing thought, pick the next guide.
If you find an error, tell us. Corrections go up with a date and a credit.
Not affiliated with UC Berkeley or any person named on these pages.
Sources for this page
- The lectures on YouTube, channel VioleTAK
- David Sirlin's write ups of twelve of the fourteen weeks He sat in on the class as an observer and blogged it week by week
- The class website (archived copy)