Performance Preparation - THE WEEKLY ALL-IN

THE STARCRAFT II AND HOTS ESPORT NEWSPAPER - NEWS-INTERVIEWS-STRATEGY-DRAMA-COMICS Week 3 January 2016 NUMBER

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Neuroscience

Performance Preparation Drama How To Improve Your Stream

Heroes Of The Storm

Heroes Rising and Esport Arena

Reflection

A LOOK BACK AT 2015

brief news

By Mike “MikeySCE” Harrell

TotalBiscuit

TB has announced is definitely ahead in his match against Cancer. We continue to wish him all the best! MMA to Return to StarCraft MMA announces that he has every intention of returning to StarCraft once he has completed his military service in October 2017. Mark your calendars! Brood War on GSL You read that right! Brood War competition is being broadcasted on AfreecaTV and there was even an English cast this week with Tastosis! There is another cast coming this week as well! DreamHack Open: Leipzig DHO is this week from Friday to Sunday. Tune in to see all of your favorite foreigner ballers!

disappointing. However, you can also just watch them on YouTube after the fact. Vortix Returns! Vortix, the Zerg from Spain, is returning to competitive StarCraft II player with Team Liquid! GLHF to him and TL! Team Apocalypse Is Formed! A brand new StarCraft II team, Apocalypse eSports, has been created with MajOr, desRow, Welmu, Teebul, souL, and PandaBearMe. Ryung to MVP The Code S alum, Ryung, has transferred to MVP from True. Birthdays! A very happy birthday this week to Hyun and Bomber!

2016 StarCraft II StarLeague Season 1 The first season of SSL for 2016 has begun! It is also streaming exclusively through DingIt, which is very

brief news

By Mike “MikeySCE” Harrell

Tyrande: OP

THIS WEEK

Tyrande has officially be confirmed as OP at high levels of play. Fixes incoming!

FREE HEROES

2016 Spring Championship

ROTATION

Blizzard confirms its plans for the Heroes of the Storm 2016 Spring Championship! There are nine events and a $4 million prize pool. Practice up! New Patch

Gold Series Grand Finals The Gold Series Heroes League 2015 - Grand Finals continue this week in China. Tune in on Friday to watch the Semifinals!

additional slots

The latest patch was released last week. Cho’Gall is now purchasable in the store, along with some new skins and items. LEVEL 5

LEVEL 7

LEVEL 12

LEVEL 15

DRAMA By MIike Harell

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR STREAM

How to Improve Your Stream Viewership And Start Making Money

A five Step Guide for Guaranteed Success Twitch.tv, Azubu, DingIt, and that YouTube thing, as time goes on, more and more streaming platforms are launching and gaining viewers. There’s never been a better time to start your very own stream or to improve the 4

stream that you already have! As it’s the start of the new year, The Weekly All In is pleased to provide its readers with a fool-proof guide to drastically improving streaming viewership and monetary gains. The

guide is short and simple, but you must follow it exactly. If there is any deviation from the guide, we cannot guarantee results. Also, it’s worth noting that the guide will work best if you have no personal or financial responsibilities.

DRAMA

By MIike Harell

Step #1 Set A Schedule During Prime Viewership Hours. Peak hours on Twitch.tv are generally from 9am to 2pm (Pacific), with the middle of the week and the weekend getting the most views. Therefore, your stream must be up during those times. Set a public, posted schedule on your page. Step #2 Interact With Your Viewers. This is where you really get to shine as an entertainer. Provide commentary on your play, even if it isn’t particularly insightful. Make jokes. Tell stories. Pit viewers against each other or other streamers. Be active on social media. Whatever you want. It doesn’t matter if your viewers are idiots; you just need to give them a reason to watch. Step #3: Monetize That Sucker.

things in there. Put a donation link on your stream. Have a robot read viewer messages attached to donations. Make donation goals that conclude in you dressing up sexy (this works better for women, but men have done it too). Make a great big list of people that donate, including hearts and winky faces by their names. ANYTHING that you think may motivate someone to send money your way, do it. Step #4: Win Games The real bane of all streamers: It helps if you’re good. That’s what will really, really keep people coming back: to see you win. Do whatever you have to do. It doesn’t matter if you’re smurfing all day every day at first, even for years, as long as you’re winning, people will watch. Once you actually get good, it won’t matter how long it took to get there.

Step #5: Use Bots

Now for the easy part: Use Bots. Hit up twitchviewbot.net, streambot. com, or viewbot.net, pick the package with the most viewers, and get it started. Don’t bother with “free” bots. It’ll be a scam and/or a huge pain the in butt. Step #5 Part B: Really. Use Bots. There are probably dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of other channels exactly like yours. How will you get more visibility? You need viewer numbers. How do you get that first big boost of viewers? Easily! Just use bots! No one on Twitch.tv has ever gone down due to botting. There is literally no downside. Sure, people may make fun of you, but you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank. Once you get that Twitch partnership, who cares what a bunch of freaks on Reddit say, anyway?

Get allllllll the money 5

reflection By Chad Abshire

A look back at 2015

2015 was a hell of a year for StarCraft II, with highs and lows dotted throughout those 365 days. The following is a look at what The Weekly All In viewed as the biggest stories of 2015. 1. Legacy of the Void On Nov. 10, 2015, StarCraft II changed dramatically with the release of its final expansion, Legacy of the Void. Even though it’s the last chapter in the narrative, which got really Mass Effecty in places, changes to the game are scheduled to still take place, with David Kim 6

saying patches and balance changes would still exist going forward.

jwa, hung up his keyboard, mouse and ruler on Dec. 1, 2015.

With new units, the promise of a new and improved ladder system, a new campaign, new portraits and, of course everyone’s favorite, gobs and gobs of balance whining, no other single event changed the landscape of the game more than LotV. 2. Flash retires

Never living up to his Brood War legend in SC2, Flash still attracted loads of viewers and hype. His first SC2 grand finals, an MLG where he lost 4-3 against Life in Heart of the Swarm, resulted in one of the more memorable moments of that expansion, with crowds booing him for Widow Mine plays.

Except maybe Flash’s retirement. Maybe that changed the game’s landscape more than a new expansion. Flash, the 23-year-old bon-

That tournament was one of the few times Day[9] showed a bit of anger, calling out those people booers in the crowd.

reflection By Chad Abshire

Oct. 15, 2015, that he had been diagnosed with inoperable cancer in his liver. Although the average life expectancy is two to three years, TB said in a Twitter statement he “fully intend(s) to be the outlier.”

Flash’s retirement seemed to open the floodgates for other notable retirements as the year was closing out, including Rain and FanTaSy. 3. TotalBiscuit’s cancer TotalBiscuit, the man who swore that SC2 would live even if he had to support it on his erect penis, announced

A black mark on the beautiful game of StarCraft occurred in October when Team Prime was accused of match fixing. But then the accusation became a conviction and Prime disbanded Dec. 2. YoDa, a previous IEM champion, and BboongBboong, a perennial Ro16’er, along with Prime’s coach, Gerrard, all received a lifetime ban from KeSPA, along with nine other unnamed individuals presumed to be bettors.

Flash only ever pulled down one tournament victory during his SC2 tenure, IEM Toronto, but said he wasn’t finished with the game. “I`ve been happy for the last 8 years as a progamer,” he said in a retirement statement. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed for this scene now and forever.”

4. Matchfixing and Team Prime

It was reported that BboongBboong made $5,000 by throwing a Proleague match.

Just 31 years old, TB’s diagnosis sent shockwaves through the scene and ultimately helped result in the disbandment of his team, Axiom. Fortunately, TB announced in January that his tumor markers were down 75 percent. TB Fighting!

On the other hand, YoDa and BboongBboong both find themselves in the same company as sAviOr. 5. The rise and fall of Lilbow Lilbow tried his best to be the next Stephano, but then gave up. Literally. Lilbow had an unprecedented run in WCS Season 3, becoming the first foreigner to win the tournament and earning a trip to BlizzCon. 7

reflection By Chad Abshire

A look back at 2015 He later went on to lose his first tournament appearance in LotV. 6. Day[9] comes back! For a little

During his tournament run, Lilbow was a monster, stomping some Koreans (read Hydra) and garnering both fans and accolades all over. But then he seemingly threw it all away. Lilbow, paired against Life in the BlizzCon Ro16, announced that he hadn’t been practicing HotS and was instead focusing entirely on LotV, a remark that didn’t sit well with fans. His announcement also drew ire from fans and personalities alike, including ToD and Nathanias. Claiming he had no chance against Life and no practice partners, Lilbow was unceremoniously bopped back into the “just another foreigner” category.

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Sean Plott, the gilded calf of StarCraft, returned for a moment during BlizzCon, hosting the show much to the joy of fans everywhere, even those who shamefully mocked his appearance each time he appeared on stream. Day[9]’s return was triumphant, showing that he hadn’t forgotten about StarCraft, despite claims otherwise from seemingly everywhere, and that he still knew his stuff.

and /r/starcraft about returning content creators coming back to StarCraft for the sake of dollars. How dare Husky, JP, DJWheat, Day[9] or even HD think about crawling back to StarCraft when there’s a buck to be made. And if they come back, what happens to content creators like JaKaTaK, Lycan or hell, even us? Fans love the “Old Guard” more – those who rose up from the ashes will die! Yeah, well, they didn’t come back. Maybe a Let’s Play or campaign stream here and there, but no fulltime stuff at all.

It turns out that growing up, having a job developing an RTS game and doing life stuff leaves little time for daily shows about the intricacies of a complex game like StarCraft.

The idea that StarCraft couldn’t support additional people making videos or guides or whatever and claiming that old creators would snuff out newer ones was an insult to both groups.

Who knew?

Ultimately, nothing really changed.

7. The fear over returning content creators (who didn’t return) The sky was falling when Legacy’s beta and release were announced, with loads of negative comments plastered across social media

8. $o$ wins another $100k tournament sOs won’t stop winning $100,000 tournaments. He claimed his third big check (literally) for that amount

reflection By Chad Abshire

ther half as bad or twice as good — the 2016 WCS Global Finals are carrying a $200,000 first place check. 9. Goodbye Coach Park The man who cultivated CJ Entus into a team to be feared left the scene for greener pastures found in the MOBA that leaves people yelling “ded gaem” more than anything else: League of Legends. with a win at BlizzCon 2015 over Life. $O$, who graces the tail of a Jin Air plane that pictures the rest of the team, has won three tournaments worth $100,000. No other player in StarCraft has won one. They’ve not had the opportunity. Along with BlizzCon 2015’s $100k grand prize, $O$ won BlizzCon 2013 and the IEM Season VIII World Championship worth the same amounts. And the odds of $O$ repeating at BlizzCon 2016 are ei-

Coach Park, who had been with CJ Entus since 2013, reportedly left the team in November to coach an LSPL team, whatever that means. I think it’s Little League of Legends. CJ had been a sleeper team beforehand, but started getting results with Coach Park at the helm. Keep in mind that Coach Park headed the EG-TL team, and made them at least compete in Proleague. During Coach Park’s tenure, herO became the strongest Protoss in the world, never fin-

ishing lower than 3rd or 4th place in any tournament he entered. In that same timeframe, herO won five tournaments, including an SSL. Park wasn’t just responsible for herO, but also turned ByuL into a Zerg to be feared. GG Coach Park! 10. WCS changes Rumors were everywhere regarding WCS and whether or not Blizzard would, for some reason, do away with its biggest SC2 tournament series just after releasing Legacy and hosting its largest tournament to date. Because that makes sense. But WCS did change. Quite a bit. More than we can list right here, but highlights include a significantly larger prize pool ($1.6 million to $2 million), a two tournament system designed to let foreigners have a chance and the Korean scene to self-destruct and more emphasis on outside tournaments like Dreamhack and so on. Will it pan out? Idk. It’s a waiting game at this point.

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Performance Preparation

Building A Focus-Enhancing Routine

Crucial performances carry greater opportunities. The extent to which we leverage our potential is enhanced by preparation. Awaken the body, clear the mind, and set your intention for the task at hand. Make the routine your own by adding elements which help you channel readiness.

Body The machinery of the body supports the brain. Rest, nutrients, hydration, and movement energize its functioning. When preparing, start with the foundation of homeostasis. Rest : Emphasize adequate rest the night(s) before Nutrients : Eat well, and plan ahead for the next meal to avoid hunger crashes Hydration : Drink water upon waking and keep water accessible Movement : Light exercise and/or stretching to engage muscles and joints

the running line of verbal thoughts, and listen. Notice the thoughts that come to the surface, and let them pass on. Remind yourself of your intention for the upcoming task. Oxygenation : Fill the lungs with 20-30 full, controlled breath cycles Meditation : Find a comfortable seated position and listen to your surroundings. Notice the temperature, your heartbeat, and how your body feels. Intention : Recall the nature of your performance endeavor and what you seek to gain and learn from the coming experience Personalization

Mind Consciousness manifests as a series of layered thoughts, many of which we can influence and control. For clarity in performance, find clarity in preparation. Connect with your breathing and create a place of mental peace that you can bring with you into performance. Quiet

If you’re already riled up, some soothing music can calm your nerves. If you’re feeling lethargic, find what gets you hyped. Recalling a mantra or useful phrase can summon courage to overcome worries. Your ultimate guide to readiness is the one which accounts for yourself and your experience.

reflection By Jackson Hughes

HOW TO SURVIVE TYRANDE META

Stun-Lock Meta Survival Kit

How to Survive Tyrande Meta Where we Are Following the post-Blizzcon scaling changes and the increased fighting in the earlier portions of the game, a larger focus has been placed on stun and burst combat. At the same time as this very drastic change, Tyrande’s ability to solo heal has been incredibly buffed due to the healing changes of Shadowstalk. This highlights the strength of her Hunter’s Mark and Lunar Flare (stun) because she no longer needs a secondary healer with her. Pairing this stun with a stun based tank like Diablo or Muradin and two or three carries can 12

blow up a particular target before any thought or action can be taken.

Community Response It’s bad. The community has been somewhat justified in their intense response to this current meta, from streamers like Chu8 calling for reform, to random 1.5k MMR scrubs thinking they know game design, to people like me staring an over the top situation. At any rate, people are really not happy about the current state of the game from a meta and competitive thought process. In fact, it’s become so in-

tense that people have temporarily forgotten their former grips of bans and Hero League being boring, etc. Through all this, many people have come up with ways for Blizzard to “fix” the situation - well I am proposing a guide to survive it, rather than fix.

The How to The first part of this guide is very simple, but may be somewhat hard to get used to. This step is to NOT go onto Reddit, TeamLiquid, B.net Forums or any such forum based site that hosts any information or comments about Heroes of

reflection By Jackson Hughes

I played The Lost Vikings to insane success when their death timers were overly over powered. We have all sinned, be it Over Powered Leoric abuse, or level 16 Kael’Thas game turn arounds.

Parting Words

the Storm whatsoever. Like I said, simple in practice, but when you think about it, you are going to cut yourself off from every other person in the community completely and utterly - maybe /leave general and other chat rooms in game while you are at it. If you can successful pick up the practice of the first step, you will begin to naturally develop the second step in this guide. The second step being the removal of self-indulgence. The theory here is that if you accept inevitably ending up in purgatory or hell, you will no longer care if the church grants or doesn’t grant indulgences. What this means is that if you can ac-

cept your fate as stunned, you will no longer desire the beauty of the pearly gates.

The final step is more than likely the hardest one that you can possibly get a grasp of. To this point you have utterly cut yourself off from the Heroes of the Storm community, and accepted your fate within this ‘great’ meat. Now there is nothing left to do but admit and absolve yourself from your sins. Forgive me friends, for I have sinned -

The Great Blizzard taketh and the Great Blizzard giveth. Us plebeians of the mortal realm must simply bide our time and quietly pray to the forces out of our hand.

You see, our constant complaints to the church may eventually drop upon deaf ears if spoken too loud. I believe in the almighty Fathers and Mothers, and their Sons and Daughters… This Christian faith motif is kind of derailing here… Friends, we must accept that the apocalypse is upon us (and I’m back at it) and patiently wait for a savior to come one day to remove the wicked from this world.

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training By Neuro

teamhouse training journal

These writings chronicle Neuro as he takes the next great leap forward in performance to train with Violet, Polt, and JaKaTaK. Let’s discover the secret recipes of deliberate practice and competitive success!

Entering a Growing Scene Day 30 : Visible Gains Excellent bo3 practice through the tournament--got to watch Violet’s games after I was eliminated. Seeing HuK and JonSnow get swarmed from Violet’s POV really highlighted the difference in fundamental speed of action sequences. It wasn’t a series of strategies to trick opponents. Each match was fought with raw mechanical muscle. 14

‘Agitate him, and ascertain the pattern of his movement.’ -Art of War At nearly all times, Violet would apply multiple points of pressure--not huge attacks, but small strikes with heavy macro behind them. The small strikes doubled as scouting squads, informing him about the opponent’s economy size and tech choices.

‘It is rarely a mysterious technique which drives us to the top, but rather a profound mastery of what may well be a basic skill set.’ -Art of Learning My fundamentals have improved drastically over the first month at the teamhouse. Finding leaks on this front is a very straightforward process, simple replay analysis to identify hiccups in worker produc-

training

tion, spending, tech choices, engagements, scout timings. Once a leak is found, put in large volume of games with plugging that leak as the primary focus of the session. I’m currently sitting at rank 35 in GM with 55% winrate overall (56% zvp, 55% zvt, 55% zvz) over 1501 games (the largest volume of any player in GM). This is by great margin the highest I’ve ever been on ladder, but there is still so much to work on.

ZvP training vs violet -maintain overlord vision at protoss 3rd base location -threaten drop cliff with overlord -overlord vision outside protoss move-out lane -drone heavy up to 100 to make spine/spore in main attack lanes to defend vs big attacks ( 3 spine 2 spore ) -1 lurker per base to defend zealot harass -watchtower vision to spot yolo adept harass

-4 lurker + some lings in nydus harassment moves -emphasize taking safer 5th/6th bases for the gas, mineral less important for defensive lurker style ZvP study of GSL Departure vs Stats -vs 1 gate, stargate, fast 3rd nexus, zerg can flood lings to overwhelm 3rd

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By Chad Abshire

quiz

The 2015 Quiz a. April b. March c. July d. August

Answers :

2. Who won the final premier tournament of the year? a. Solar b. INnoVation

1. a 2. d 3. c 4. c 5. b 6. d 7. a 8. b 9. d 10. b

1. Who won the first premier tournament of 2015? a. Life b. PartinG c. Polt d. Zest

8. A day after Flash retired, this Korean Protoss also called it quits. Name him. a. PartinG b. Rain 5. Of the 22 premier c. JYP tournamnets held in 2015, d. HuK how many were won by a foreigner? 9. How many premier a. 0 tournaments in 2015 were b. 1 won by Protoss players? c. 2 a. 5 d. lol b. 7 c. 10 6. DIMAGA and what other d. 11 European player retired in 2015? 10. Polt won a tournament a. ThorZaIN in April. What month did c. $O$ b. Ret the next Terran player win d. MMA c. Stephano a premier tournament? a. July 3. Flash retired in what d. HasuObs b. August month? 7. This player who retired c. October a. October in 2015 is known for his d. No other Terran players b. November GG timing. Name him. won. c. December a. FanTaSy d. March b. Keen 4. Which month had c. BboongBboong the most premier d. Grubby tournaments? 16

Chad Abshire

Nicolas Chaussois

Mike Harrell

JunO

Neuro

Jackson Hughes

The Weekly All In Artworks, layout and edition : Nicolas Chaussois Writers : Chad Abshire, Mike Harrell, Jackson Hughes, Neuro, Andrew Park, Juno THANKS TO OUR PATRONS AND SUPPORTERS ! Bjørn Thuesen Kayluu Eric Harald Lörcher Jacob Jensen Alexandre Fruchaud dorin stanuc gumballdead Hopeless Selim Çelik Corey Abshire John George Thomas Klüter Philip Penchev calvA Teo McDohl Giulio Prone Tobias Højrup Knudsen Ryan Topher Doll