Starcraft Dictionary

Newbie's Corner

1/1 (2/2, 3/3): This refers to the upgrade a player's army has. The first number corresponds to attack upgrade, the second to armor upgarde. In the rare occasion where the Protosss player gets shield upgarde a third number is introduced like so: 0/0/1.

AA: Short for "Anti-air". Could mean static defense (i.e. Spore Crawler) or units that are good against air unit (i.e.Viking).

Artosis Pylon: A lone Pylon that powers most of the Protoss player's structure. The term evolved when a -now caster- Pro player named Artosis lost a game in a championship due to a single Pylon that was powering most of his production structures, losing power, thus reinforcement and the game in the end.

APM: Short for Action Per Minute. The frequency of a player hitting a key or clicking the mouse button in a minute.

Higher APM could mean faster manipulation of structures and units thus higher skill, but this often is NOT the case!

Many player have high APM due to spamin (ordering the same action, like attack, rapidly many times over). This leads players into the false illusion of skill, inhibiting real (skill) advancement. Some Pro player feel confortably sitting at around 120-150 APM without any drawback.

All-in: All in means, to throw everything at the opponent and try to end the game, this includes workers as well (at least a big chunk of the worker force) to "tank" for the fighting units, lifting the chances to win, a lot higher. This too means, that the way out of an all-in (if didn't work) will be very hard and may very well be game ending to the player initiating it. Exactly like the poker term, from where it gets its name.

Build order: BO for short (and simply "build", alias "opener") is the order in which a player must execute structure and/or units construction to maximize productivity in a most efficient way. Any and every BO has a focus point and time, be it economic or specific army composition. Build order schematics are expressed in terms of supply count: 13-Gate for example means, at the 13th supply count you need to warp in a Gateway.

Bane: Short for Baneling.

Bling Muta: A powerfull Zerg army composition that consists of Zerglings, Banelings and Mutalisks.

Bio: A Terran army mostly made out of biological units, aka bio force. Also in chat it might mean a person needs to use the washroom.

Blinker: Also called as Blink Stalker, refers to a Stalker with Blink ability researched.

Base-trade: This situation happens when both player (1v1) is attacking one another's base whilst not defeinding their own. Can happen anytime throughout the game.

Cheese: Or cheesy play (no, its not the dairy product we are talking about here) is, where a player rushes for a highly unordodox play, that most of the times catches the opponent off his/her guard. Cheesy plays are rarely focused on the mid or late game. here are some of the most infamuos cheeses: 6 pool rush(Z), cannon rush(P), proxy 2 rax bunker rush(T).

Crackling: A Zergling, that is upgraded with Metabolic Boost as well as Adrenal Glands. The term came from the SC1 era, refering to the sound effect of a fast-attacking zergling.

CC: Short for Command Center.

Chargelot-Archon: This is a Protoss army composiotion. The core of it is made out of Zealots with Charge ability researched (Chargelot) and Archons. There are several styles of this: mixed with Immortals, mixed with Tempest and so on, but the core is always the same.

Caster: Units that have special abilities, that can be used directly against enemy units such as the HighTemplar's Psionic Storm. Outside of the game it also describes a person who is commentating ("casting") over a game, live or otherwise.

Concave: An arc or curved-in line. In StarCraft, the term describes the engagement of two armies. From the curve, one can assume the outcome of an engagement. The better the concave the better the outcome might be for that player's army, although there are many fastors that this assumption does not count for, like upgardes.

Contain: Contain is, when a player keeps pinned the opponent down to a certain location on the map, limiting his/her control (subsequently liberating his own) over the map. Another benefit of containing, is limiting (or at least delaying) the expansions the opponet can take, giving an opportunity to do so for the player establishing the contain, gaining potential economic advantages.

Death-ball: Aka doom army, is an army that, (in most cases) reached the supply cap and composed in such a way that it is very hard to stop. Only a doom army can stand against a death-ball, unless fatal mistakes were made.

DT: Short for Dark Templar.

Early-game: Depending on the level of skills, this is the period from the start of the game to the 7th-11th minute mark. This is also the period where mistakes and choices have the biggest impact of the later periods of the play.

Economy: One's resource gathering capability, expressed in worker count, saturation and number of expansions. Economy is measured by the income-rate achived per minute.

FF: Short for Force Field.

FE: Short for Fast Expansion. Fast expansion usually occure right after the first army unit producing structure (Spawning Pool, Gateway, Barracks) and involves cutting worker production in order to have the minerals necessary to build the extra base. Although its very risky, sometimes players opt to skip the army producing structure to have an even faster 2nd base. Fast expand must be started no later than 5 minutes in the game.

FFE: Short for forge-fast expand. It is a Protoss opener, whereas the player builds a forge (right after the first Pylon), followed by a Nexus. When the Nexus is started, the player warps a Photon Cannon for early defense and walls off his/her ramp/entarnce.

Food: Just another name for supply.

G: Not yet available!

Hydra: Short for Hydralisk.

Hatch: Short for Hatchery.

HT: Short for High Templar

Harass: Putting pressure on the opponent. More commonly, targeting economy by killing off workers with a group of highly mobile or cloacked units in a hit-and-run style. There are harassment tactics focusing not on economic, but more so on inflicting army (picking off reinforcements en rute via rally points or otherwise) or tech related (destroying upgarding or vital tech structures) damage.

I: Not yet available!

J: Not yet available!

Kiting: The term comes from the observed movements of a kite. Kiting is a micro-manouver whereas the player moves the army out of range, then attacks, then repeats the sequence. Its usually used by ranged units vs melee units, but ranged can still be used against ranged if one outranges the other i.e. Phoenix(4) vs Mutalisk(3).

Ling: Short for Zergling.

Late-Game: This is the time in the game where the main mid-game armies, their reinforcements and the players individual startegies are exhausted to the point where change must come. It usually starts no later then 20-25 minutes into the match. In the "early" late-game the most powerfull units enter the field to try to end the game by force, then the game becomes a struggle for resources, a guerrilla war for expansions untill slowly one player slips behinde so much so, that he/she can't keep up and must surrender.

Micro: Controling units in a battle or while harassing to stretch the the unit's over-all damage through time. Simply said: making a unit live as long as possible in a battle by moving them around, getting out of fire range or moving out of the battle then back in, causing the enemy troop to fire at another unit.

Macro: A player's ability to keep up the constant unit production and resource gathering (through well timed expansions and the right amount of workers). Macro is famous to slip away while a player is in a big battle or hes/her focus is devided.

Mech: Refers to one of the unit composition a Terran player might opt for. This army is composed mostly of mechanical units: Tanks, Thors, Ravens, Hellbats, Banshees, Vikings and so on.

Main: The base location where a player starts the game.

Muta: Short for Mutalisk.

MMM: Refers to a Terran army composed of Marines, Marauders and Medivacs.

Mid-Game: Refers to the 7(12) - 15(20) (depending on skill level) period in a match. This period is compacted with action, it is the stage where the players reach the highlight of their strategy and "doom" army size, composition goal that they think can crush the opponent and win the game.

Meta-Game: Broadly means, the common style of play, different regions might have different meta-games. It is very important to Pro players as meta-game means: a sources outside the game. In example: if Polt(T) watches a lot of replays from Zest(P), he will know what styles commonly used by Zest versus Terran. If he scouts and see a fast Nexus he automaticly will start a third CC playing a meta-game, having an educated ASSUMPTION that, if Zest (in his replays) takes an early expo, he will most likely tech very fast to meet the mid-game with a lot of power units (like Collosi, Immortal etc..), which means Zest will not have anything at the moment to stop Polt's fast third expansion. Meta-game keeps on evolving, different startegies are born, existing ones adapted, branched off, die out and are sometimes reborn.

Map-control: Having a good sense of what goes on by gaining vision taking Xel'naga towers or otherwise and establishing an ease of mobility on the map. One may need to contain the other in order to limit his/her opponent's vision and mobility on the map, thus gaining map-control.

Melee Unit: A melee unit must be up close in orther to be able to attack as its range is 0 - 1. Such units are: Zealot, Ultralisk. The Terran race does not have a melee unit.

Natural: The location of your potential 2nd base directly outside your main. The closest location to use for expansion.

Pro Player: Although it indicates a player's skill, in the StarCraft universe (and eSports in general) it refers to a player who makes a living out of playing the game. Such players include: Polt(T), Scarlett(Z), Zest(P) and so on.

Proxy: Short for "proximity". As the name suggests, it refers to a structure constructed in proximity (very close to) the opponents base. Usually it is a unit producing structure like a Stargate(P) or Barracks(T) in order to cut down traveling distance and time, allowing the player to be aggressive a lot sooner, than usual. Proxy and rush can be used together but not a necessity.

Pool: Short for Spawning Pool.

PF: Short for Planetary Fortress.

Push: Initiating an attack with a sizable force, but not necessarily the whole army, looking to deal game-turning damage.

Q: Not yet available!

Rush: An attempt to overpower your opponent by massing up an army very quickly. Rushing is the precise opposite of teching, by focusing on amessing an army one will subsequently delay his/her tech and economic advencement in the game. Rush is a very early-game focused play. Transitioning is very hard. It can be game-ending for the player if the rush was deflected with minimal loses, on the other hand, it can win the game if the opponent could not deal with it adequatly.

Rax: Short for Barracks.

Ranged Unit: A ranged unit can attack distant units or structures. Their attack's range varies unit to unit.

There are three categories of range: short-range 2 - 4.9; mid-range 5 - 7.9; long-range 8 - 30. There are some exeptions to the range limit such as: Nydus Worm(Z), MULE calldown(T) and Recall(P).

SD: Short for "static defense". Defensive structures that must be in one place without motion to be able to attack (burrrowed Spine Crawler, Turret, Photon Cannon etc).

Speedling: A Zergling evolved with Metabolic Boost.

Stim: Short for Stimpack.

Saturation: The optimum number of workers gathering resources on one base. Many argue this number should be: 16 on minerals and 3 on each gas geyser, 22 total worker on each base.

Scouting: To observe the opponent's base and actions. Gathering information on the opponent's possible build order, his/her army movements, army composition, expansion plans etc. These information are extremely important to be able to adept/gain advantages to/over one's opponent.

Slice(ing): Slicing is a micro related manouver that "cuts" off the front part, then moves it to the side of an engage-ed/-ing army in order to establish a better concave and/or to save the front-line (in this case, one would want to move the sliced part to the side, then slightly behinde the remaning army to deflect the focus of the opponent's army to the healtier part) from being killed off.

Split(ing): Similar to slicing, spliting is the action to move one's army apart in chunks in order to evade/minimize incoming area-of-effect damage and/or gain a better concave boosting his/her engagement's damage output.

Supply: The amount of "space" taken up by one's units compared to the amount of space currently available by the number of existing supply units/buildings. The supply indicator can be found at the upper right corner of the screen in a 3 digit/3 digit format. The first set of numbers show the used-up space, the second indicates the space currently available. Supply is NOT equal to the number of units one might have, since different types of unit takes different amount of sapce up, i.e. a worker (all race) takes 1 space compared to a tank(T) that takes up to 4. Every supply building/unit extends the currently available space by 8.

Supply-cap: Aka food-cap occures, when one's units supply count reaches the highest amount of space allowed in the game. Does not matter if one have more than the required 25 supply unit/building, the maximum allowed space stays the same: 200.

Supply-block: Supply block happens, when one reaches the current limit of his/her supply (not to be confused with supply-capped!), either because the supply providing structure (unit in Zerg's case) is delayed or its been destroyed by the opponent. Supply-block is indicated by one's supply figure turning red i.e. 108/104 in the top right corner of his/her screen.

Teching: Aka powering, is the act of focusing on technoligical advancements, allowing the player to build more powerfull units earlier then usual. This also means, the player is trying to get economic advantage over his/her opponent. Teching or powering is focused on early defense to strong mid- and late-game.

Third: ..forth and so on are the locations for the 3rd, 4th etc expansion a player might take.

Transitioning: Changing the army's structure to better defend or attack with higher winning chances against the opponent. Transitionings are usually timed (but not limited to) from early- to mid- to late-game compositions.

Timing attack: A well timed attack, that takes advantage of short lived "edges" where the opponent is vulnerable due to: teching, upgrade and/or research disadvantage etc... To be able to notice these "windows" one must have good scouting, meta-game sense and knowledge of the opposing race's weak points.

Ultra: Short for Ultarlisk.

V: Not yet available!

W: Not yet available!

X: Not yet available!

Y: Not yet available!

Z: Not yet available!

OC: Short for Orbital Command

One/One/One: This is a Terran opener involving the construction of a Barracks, a Factory and a Starport (in this order) to get cloacked Banshees or a very fast Medivac usually for Hellion or Widow Mine drop purposes. Economy suffers from this opener, but the potential damage is tempting.