Rules of Engagement
ZAM speaks to Nick "Axslav" Ranish on the superb new MLG Starcraft II show
Over the past week MLG has been featuring the Tournament of Champions, an amazing eight man tournament with the biggest names in SCII battling for the $5,000 top prize.
Before it airs at 6pm ET, MLG has actually already kicked off the night’s entertainment. Major League Gaming brings us the Rules of Engagement a great new show, hosted by Nick ‘Axslav’ Ranish, that takes us through the ins and outs of Starcraft II.
Rules of Engagement is a show that brings one of MLG’s top casters to the front of the class to teach us about this thrilling eSport with a different topic highlighted each show.
Monday - Talking Tactics
Tuesday - Developing Fundamentals
Wednesday - Mechanics Of The Bizarre
Thursday - Community Critique
To give a small insight into the world of MLG Starcraft II, Nick ‘Axslav’ Ranish joins us for a quick Q&A.
With Rules of Engagement covering every aspect of Starcraft II, from wacky pro builds to the simplest form of “Developing Fundamentals,” could every player and fan watch this and learn something new?
While each episode has a different theme, there are definitely bits of useful information for everybody. In each game I go over I make sure to teach concepts that apply to strategy-gamers of all skill levels and races. Even Tuesday's developing fundamentals can help more advanced players as they often don't understand the underlying reasons for why certain basic techniques are used.
Your personal knowledge and analytical mind has always been a great pull to the content you provide at MLG, dating back to the MLG Arenas. How has your extensive background in Starcraft II prepared you for Rules of Engagement? Is there anything that RoE brings that challenges you differently?
While my extensive Starcraft II background helps me greatly with RoE, my background with strategy concepts in a more general sense is even more useful as it allows me to teach strategy concepts and how they apply to Starcraft II. This also brings with it a set of unique challenges in terms of how to teach applications of strategy concepts to an audience that isn't familiar with the concepts themselves or the game-theory behind them.
This new style of programming from MLG provides us with a great evenings entertainment for not just Starcraft fans, but eSports fans in general. With RoE on Tuesday and Wednesday being followed by Halo 4, Black Ops and League Of Legends events, do you think this is a show that can introduce Starcraft II to the audiences of the other titles?
I hope to try to bring in new audience members particularly with Monday's and Tuesday's episodes. "Talking Tactics" shows how deep and interesting a game Starcraft II is and "Developing Fundamentals" is designed primarily to help new players understand how to get through the steep learning curve of multiplier Starcraft II.
Finally, with the Tournament of Champions heading into the Semi-finals, we cut the player base in half to the top four players in the world. Do you have any words for people who might be new to the sport on what to look for as the level of competition really heats up?
The great thing about Starcraft II is that there are so many aspects to the game. Some players love to watch the best players in the world control their units in ways that seem impossible. Others enjoy watching professionals outmaneuver their opponents with using misdirection and small squads of units and some players just like to watch the professionals show how to amass an enormous army in record time. Find what parts of the game interest and excite you and see which players excel at those aspects and how they might cover up deficiencies in other aspects of the game.
Make sure to tune into Rules of Engagement Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday at 5pm ET and the Tournament of Champions this Thursday at 6pm ET. For the full picture of what to watch in December, head here for the official schedule. And remember you can always catch up on what you have missed via Video on Demand for both the Tournament of Champions and Rules of Engagement.