The UPGRADE Race | Beating Grandmaster With Stupid Stuff

Today I try to get as many upgrades while denying my opponents upgrade.
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#harstem #SC2 #StarCraft2

[@artexartexartex]

BGWSS ideas: 1) "all or nothing" - At some point in the game, attack with EVERYTHING in a complete all-in, including a full probe pull. 2) "confused UN soldiers" - secure an opponents base but do not kill any workers or the hatchery/nexus/cc, but instead protect them from the opponents' army coming to liberate them 3) "oasis king" - all expansions have to be in random hidden base locations on map. 4) "overly friendly neighbor" - continue building buildings closer to opponent...you just want to be friends (so you don't attack), but you will defend your property

[@TheGuyCalledX]

Love the idea of a mandatory full worker pull

[@You-ul8qw]

There was also a challenge which was a something of a specialized base challenge. He would have a 'Stargate base' which was a proxy base but only that base was allowed to have stargates in it. Other examples include an 'Upgrade base' with triple forge or a 'Templar base' with templar archives and dark shrine.

[@whothis8889]

@@You-ul8qw Oh, this is a really good idea.

[@SaulGoodman3D2049]

@@You-ul8qw enemy campaign base layouts be like

[@jaym7494]

Overly friendly neighbor LOL love it

[@Uhthis]

Population control, try to supply block your opponent as often as you can

[@andrubaker8062]

Yes, just yes

[@artexartexartex]

He did this but I think he needs to do it again. I don't think we saw him so it do 2 of 3 races

[@jacksonmcdonald5443]

Or self supply block where you must be supply blocked for 30 seconds

[@usrevenge]

@@artexartexartex he is it but didn't check the tab that shows how long the opponent was supply blocked which is arguably the whole point of the challenge. If has been a while though. Watching harstem get hyped sniping a supply dropped supply depot was fun

[@TremereTT]

the Ovi hunting game!!! Pylon snyping is also great! But killing depots is just boring. I think for terran he should be constantly harrasing the command centres with "Feedback" from the High templar, so they can't scan or call down mules.

[@skerrangaming]

“I lost my prism, which isn’t great. I also lost my will to live, which also isn’t great” 🤣😂 I love this guys videos

[@KapnKuTT]

I think this Episode was more like "Beating Grandmaster With Stupid Stuff, that could be also viable and powerful". Also my 12 APM Brain says that I would like two Tactics: A: Terran: Mass Viking Opener vs Zerg killing all the Overlords, maybe with something like Planetaries, Missile Turrets, etc. for Defense. B: Terran: I would like to see what happens if you'd overbuild SCV's and always sent a bunch of them on auto repair with your Mac-Army.

[@ЯЗеленый-п6б]

I love b tactics but usually take expand more profitable. But if you try to 2/3 base big push that can be big brain move! Omg i want to see that.

[@adicacid]

If you want A, uThermal has a Penguin Brothers (Mass Hellbat-Viking-Thor) series of videos. He also managed to match with Harstem in one of the videos.

[@guest273]

You know the meme where the guy has his veins popping out. That meme image & a caption: Kevin when he hasn't denied upgrades in 30 seconds.

[@2Stepzupp]

Pretending to be AFK 3.0 with a twist. Send early scout to enemy base, when you get to their mineral line, ask for PP, say something about a delivery or something, then immediately pause and "ACCIDENTALLY" unpause the game. Do everything you can to sell that the unpause was accidental, eg AFK and lose your scouting probe in the middle of their mineral line. For extra realism, limit infrastructure in main base to what would've been appropriate for when you pretended to be afk and build up your proxy base instead. Extra idea: Rush double forge on protoss and you're only allowed to build shield+armor the whole game. No weapon upgrades allowed.

[@matthewsemenuk8953]

i gotta say the captains jokes today tickled me to point of lol.. Deserved a like today for sure. Its been fun watching Captain grow up from a cocky, arrogant, delinquent, into a fun loving criminal with a great sense of humor. I think thats what a lady can do to ya over time. GJ and GGs

[@codyheiner3636]

Idea: you can only attack your opponent when his army is not at his base. Try to attack every time his army moves out. You can also try to pull his army out and attack from a different angle. Under some conditions (maxed/after 10 mins, game clearly over, etc), you can just attack directly if he's camping hard in base.

[@Nuovoswiss]

I'd like to see the "no warpgate" BGMWSS strat again. Or perhaps the 1:1:1 ratio for WG:Robo:Stargate so you need equal amounts of each.

[@Zodi99]

13:41 putting some workers into gas :D

[@jaym7494]

BGMWSS: the challenge that made me subscribe was the ‘pretending to be AFK’

[@Gid-J]

The Robotics facility location in the mainbase makes immortals take 10 years to walk to the front. That needs to be switched with one of those gateways. (game 1)

[@onyxia8786]

27:10 But what is he gonna do with a Stargate???? Make a Nerfray?? ROFL

[@6tg43]

What Kevin doing is just has’s daily routine

[@guest273]

BGMWSS idea - build a nexus in your opponents main base and then recall early units like zealots / adepts / stalkers / sentries in their main base to cause chaos. If at all possible try to wall them out so their main & natural base can't help each other too much.

[@joelcaughell4777]

Mortar rounds, try using only seige units (ie seige tanks, brood lord, banelings, swarm host etc) for both attack and def as well as static to help def and move static def in more forward positions.

[@Monkeyheadtpc]

"beloved general" Your first unit will be the general of your entire army. You can only micro units wherever it is present. Everywhere else, your peasant forces are left to their own devices (A-move). Unfortunately, once the beloved general dies, morale will hit rock bottom but your forces (and workers) will rush the enemy in a rage fueled last resort attack (all in).

[@tsenguun]

Proxy Nexus on the opponent's main base, recall your probes and army together for an all in. I think you can make the probes mine gas to overlap them all and place your army (would be 1,2 stalkers since this is very early)

[@plantex625]

BGMWSS Idea: Lift up units with Phoenixs but dont kill them, instead drop them down so they get immediately exploded by disruptor balls or land in a stasis ward. You get a point for each unit you combo in this way. How many points can you get and win? Seems very unnecessary and difficult to do, but imagine the mental damage of lifting like 8 workers and instead of just killing them with the phoenixs you let them fall and its right into a stasis ward.

[@Supergoon1989]

lol, that will piss off opponents, it'l look so troll-ish, like playing with your food. I wanna see it! XD

[@vwlop]

Map Hacks Concept: Priority is to have as much of the map uncovered as possible at all times.

[@StpMakinMeChangMyNam]

I think the best thing about these types of challenges is how it pushes the meta. Back when Beastyqt was still doing silly challenges to GM he did a never attack with Terran challenge where he could only harass with nukes and played to essentially take over more than half the map's resources and win through attrition. That style of play ended up being copied a bit in a couple of tournament games because it had potential. I could see a similar shift in focus to sniping upgrades coming up in professional play as well. If you snipe the upgrade just before it finishes it's a huge time investment lost and can seriously screw up your opponent's mid and late game. I could see more focus on upgrade sniping having a big impact.

[@ip2874]

I loved that hallucinated prism in the first game

[@MrScipio42]

BGMWSS: every upgrade you research allows you to build 10 army supply. Starting with 10 so you can defend yourself. Warpgate another 10. +1 attack another 10. you get the concept. I am interested in how it works out. o7

[@griffenmorrison2560]

Oh captain my captain

[@drewaforbes]

I always loved the pretend to be afk challenge, freakin' hilarious lol. That's my vote haha.

[@jaym7494]

So fun, remember the tension when the nexus dies and the game isn’t over LOL

[@drewaforbes]

@@jaym7494 yeah and they’re left like “wtf???!”

[@jaym7494]

@@drewaforbes yeah bro lol it’s epic every damn time, especially when they play around, like that one guy that didn’t kill it immediately, he left it at like 1hp and the workers we’re still mining for Harstem 😂 meanwhile Harstem is building like a madman

[@drewaforbes]

@@jaym7494 bahahahah, oh man, yeah, that’s good stuff LOL

[@stopher9355]

Idea: after your first few pylons the rest of them have to be proxy’d in the corner and used to spell a loved ones’ names/initials

[@casi9238]

HARSTEM in pylons? support

[@Mike-dm5ut]

@@casi9238 i'd be into a series where he makes it through the ranks with tos but has to sign each game with his initials in the corner of map like they are pieces of art.

[@casi9238]

@@Mike-dm5ut this should be called the Artist challenge or something like that, he just has to sign every game with KDK. Would be awesome

[@axe1_b563]

idea, you must always fight on the low ground

[@michaelkoehler4318]

This was right up your alley. Great episode.

[@chir0pter]

7:00 shoulda brought a sentry to deny repair edit: perhaps this would be the play- sentry zealot immortal, or just walk the sentry and drop two immortals

[@bugggit]

Upgrades for the babes

[@corlevtec]

Try sneaking DTs into opponents bases without him noticing them and hold position them there. Like that they'll provide vision of his bases. Once he moves out and is too far from the bases, remove the DTs from hold position and let them run rampage in the bases.

[@Zhienerich]

Idea: Put all of your expansions in your opponents half of the map.

[@wolfosironaxe4602]

It has to be said. Absolutly amazing content Harstem! Thanks for always present dose of goodness everyday again. Kind regards uit de achterhoek.

[@AntiDoctor-cx2jd]

I think that it would be best to do phoenix harass to pave the way for a void ray to snipe the upgrades

[@wasfas1977]

Only build probes from 1 nexus, alternatively always build probes from at least 1 nexus.

[@MattOfSmith]

Here's an idea: You have to proxy *every* building. All you can build in your main is supply buildings / mains (cc, nexus, hatchery).

[@notevenmadbro]

Isn't that just the afk strat

[@arthasthelitchking2280]

What about multiples of 4 (army comp you mention in a cast of time vs trap).

[@evandaniel6198]

Challenge idea for BGMWSS, Rush out four or more overseers before ling speed then use the contaminate to delay, upgrades specialty units such as voidrays, medics, tanks ETC.

[@evandaniel6198]

either to gain an upgrade lead or to gain breathing room.

[@andreashalbfeld7671]

You're a content MACHINE!

[@fanghhhhh]

The first game was against the Chinese pro player, iGXY. And he was streaming while playing this game.

[@maxrahmquist8730]

Go for the Vanilla - AFK challenge

[@danyazabazhanov2037]

Week 13 of asking Harstem to harass workers with colossi

[@mskolnik2]

Try a long distance mining only challenge?

[@tjfirhfjejUTH24]

thanks dad for more sc2 content

[@jerem3135]

I think you don't play Zerg enough :P

[@damedley75]

Stupid suggestion: worker pull

[@SN.LurkinG]

Drug addicts - your bio has to stim twice everytime you want to use Stim, every victory increase the stim quantity by 1

[@drimmlunk172]

Idea: Find a way to get a draw. You are not allowed to go to an overly won position first. How? I don't know.

[@93lozfan]

Is that a skin to make your buildings look like broodwar structures or is my video quality that bad?

[@whothis8889]

Try and do the DT wall again.

[@enymus3081]

Hey Harstem, STORM would have been INSANELY strong i believe. When you look at the final fight against your first opponent. Just a quick note for the next time.

[@You-ul8qw]

Nah ghosts existed. Storm dies when it sees ghosts. Maybe you could put it in the prisim however you don't need splash when your upgrades are so good.

[@tatotato85]

GIGACHAD

[@JeremySmith-wc4lh]

I want to see the build vs zerg

[@josephsanon3570]

Football isn't played with your foot. Lol Merica. Jk

[@gungan5822]

Does denying upgrades really quality as stupid stuff?

[@nagainu]

i love your content

[@jjbasson]

engaging

[@casi9238]

We saw it with Terran, now we see it with Protoss. Probably better with T though given the fire rate of marines.

[@hotstuffwatcher]

What if you play zerg and just mass overseers and poop on the upgrades over and over

[@gabydewilde]

Your "the right build vs the wrong race" was spectacularly hilarious. I remember a P player who got furious and called you a noob for storming his zealots (that you called zerglings) One of the best rage quits ever.

[@TrueThanny]

I think it was actually stalkers that he called hydras, but you're right that it was hilarious.

[@emctwoo]

If we’re returning to classics, another run of the AFK challenge is a must!

[@jaym7494]

+1!! That challenge was the reason I subscribed to Harstem.

[@drewaforbes]

Didn't realize this one was here in the comments already but I loved that challenge, lol.

[@mikeballew3207]

That one is my favorite

[@andreygrigorev8366]

Yeah that is a really cool one, i'd like to see a series of it Hovever, i think this is almost not possible anymore, since these videos of harstem got so popular and everyone double checks it

[@JourneymanJacob]

That last game looked stellar! You made the match look way more fun than it would have been with a vanilla strategy. I find myself entertained

[@catfriendly3316]

Honestly my favorite BGMWSS was when you played other race's builds with protoss. Calling zealots zerglings, stalkers roaches, etc.

[@jeremiahbenoit1814]

"GO FOR THE GOLD" challenge: As often as possible and as early as possible, snipe your opponents nexus/CC/Hatch over and over again.

[@Tillvioliniert]

Harstem, please do the certain amount of kills on a unit challenge again! It was fun and u said u wanted to do it again. It was actionpacked and cool. Lookin forward to it.

[@hamburgers7817]

I loved the zealot challenge it was so funny! Maybe try getting like 30 kills on a disruptor? Or 15 kills on an oracle? 10 kills on 1 sentry? All sounds pretty funny

[@wangj]

BGMWSS idea: "Slava Ukraini" - in a show of solidarity, your probes will only go to work with yellow health bars (together with the blue shield bar forming the flag of Ukraine)

[@thewired4607]

🤓

[@deathwish2291]

Reverse creep - play as Zerg (obviously) and reverse spread the creep from the other side. All kind of methods allowed (proxy hatch, ovi creep, nydus, queen drop, etc.). Full attack once the creep highway is done.

[@You-ul8qw]

This is one I posted 2 weeks ago but I liked it so here it is. There was a similar challenge to this in which you said your opponent was playing the campaign but he didn't know it. Idea for BGMwSS: S.O. - Strategic Outposts. Whenever you build a tech structure (other than gateways), you must proxy it somewhere on the map as a strategic outpost. Each outpost must have a minimum of the following: 1 Tech Structure (such as forge, cyber core, twilight council, robo facility, stargate, robo bay, DT shrine ect.) 1 Basic Production Structure (Gateway) 1 Pylon OR Warp prism 1 Photon Cannon OR Shield Battery You may also have 1 tech structure per stronghold (base), such as a cyber core in a wall, or a single stargate in the back of your capital (main). You can only have 1 tech structure per outpost/stronghold. You can hide these outposts if you want (eg for DT shrine) however they still must have the required structures. Although you should certainly have some more offensive outposts otherwise you are disqualified. Your judgement may determine the number of/ratio of offensive outposts you must have to fulfil this objective.

[@willhau9161]

Some of your best videos were blink stalkers only or stalker with no blink against people spamming immortals carriers and somehow you beat them late game with 30 minutes + games

[@DerSpucky]

How confidently he said: "that's a dead cyclone"! Those are the moments that really impress me in your videos.

[@MrTacoSr]

Man I’m so glad you did this one! Saw it in the comments section and was hoping it’d get done. Super fun games to watch!

[@robinm.9755]

You can only build the units from left to right. For example gate way you must start with a zeolot, centry, stalker, adept. If you build a dark shrine and want two dts you can only make a second dt after zeolot,centry,… for robo and stargate the same

[@robinm.9755]

👍

[@dkh_cyberbanan]

I have an idea for you. Each time you want to build a structure as zerg, you must send two drones to the place and let them fight, the winner is honored to build the structure. So you spend two drones for each structure instead of 1.

[@gabydewilde]

A build that I haven't seen in ages: Build as few gateway units as possible but bank resources and mass gateways. First they see the insane number of gates, then they see your army barely contains gateway units, you do some fights then (depending on your resource bank) warp in your gateway unit of choice.

[@nandobarreto2]

revive AFK

[@mattivoutilainen2348]

Pretending to be afk. It is just the best.

[@jaym7494]

100%

[@invosc1361]

BGWSS idea: 1. Tassadar Hero HT - Have a High Templar with like 50 or 75 kills (or more). I donno how much to make it challenging but not impossible but with storm I suppose it should be easier to get much more kills than you did 20 with a Zealot. 2. I agree that the ones when you were acting like playing against different race were hilarious. :) As to this video I just wanted to say that upgrade advantage is probably least "stupid" stuff I've seen there. It is crazy how much upgrade advantage gives. Reminds me of recent game of Creator where he went double forge and smashed some very high level player. It just shows that investing into upgrades (maybe not to THIS degree), might be very useful even on highest level. Go Harstem and win Katowice next year with triple forge and denying enemy upgrades. :)

[@K3rriganZerg]

For beating Gm's with stupid stuff I got a few; -As Zerg, nydus workers to mine from opponents bases. -"Stone Age Challenge" (as any race), you're not allowed to get any upgrades at all, no attack, armor upgrades, no speed etc not allowed. Only thing that maybe u can get some higher tech only so you can use better units. - "Fusion/ Evolution units", (Toss/Zerg only) can only use Archons, banes, rav, lukers, broodlords.

[@jerelfontenot1]

I completely understand not needing to see an action to know it's a failure. That's my life in general. As a suggestion, what about rhythmic starcraft? You have to make micro/macro moves according to a defined rhythm. So, you might use micro-micro-macro, micro-micro-macro, and keep repeating. If it starts to feel too easy, try changing the rhythm after so many repeats. So, repeat micro-micro-macro four times, then repeat micro-macro-micro-macro four times, etc. No, I don't think this is actually doable but it would be legendary.

[@JFox4587]

BGMWSS: All tech requires a new base. Gateway units must go in the main. Want a Stargate next? Build a natural. Switching to robo now? Take a third. Want a cheeky dark shrine? It must be built on location at your 4th base. All tech structures must stay with their base. If a base is destroyed and you have units from that tech, they are allowed to defend the base as it is rebuilding, but cannot attack until the nexus and tech structure is rebuilt that those units belong to. Keep reading for further rules: For example, if the Dark Shrine is built at your 4th and then you lose your 4th, all DTs and archons built from DTs must wait and defend the 4th while it is rebuilding. Once the dark shrine and nexus which "powers" the DT shrine are finished, you may once again use these units. Also note that a robo bay is a different tech from basic robo units and requires a separate base. So if your natural was used to build immortals and observers, it cannot also be used for collosus, as these are different levels of tech. Same goes for DTs and high templar. Same goes for carriers and void rays. Basically, choose your tech wisely, as you can only have so many bases. ;o)

[@messiethehamster957]

Captain please anser a question for me. Why do protosses never get shield upgrades? In PvT it makes sense because ghost just deletes all the shields, but in the other two matchups the upgrade LITERAllY effects every unit and build just as much as armour upgrades do AND the shields can be regened so it prevents your armour from being damaged. Am I logical or do I suck?

[@roarmalf]

Putting your trust in KZbin comments is like taking your dog for a walk... only you're wearing the leash and the dog is walking you. It could be a fun adventure, but more likely you're going to end up chasing cars until you get hit by a bus. Have a Starcrafty day!

[@Volta650]

I’ve always gone for supply blocks. If you attack and aim depots and pylons. Then shift to combat with units. They have a hard time recovering there units while getting supply in the early.

[@Schoolfunds1]

BGMWSS.. only unit ability upgrades allows (blink, stim, etc), no shield/armor/attack upgrades.

[@propeacemindfortress]

And this is how you put a multiplier on the resources spend for units nicely done.

[@Trazynn]

The real way to beat your strategy is to keep building an infinite amount of engineering bays.

[@DatSwif]

"Dark shrine in the natural, hard to spot" - doesn't spot the ebay in the natural

[@wiiplayers0124]

220 supply challenge, as the only possible class zerg over supply drones cancel buildings/spores beat grandmaster with a bigger army/eco!

[@systemslayer525]

Let's do the supply attack challenge, against zerg you aim to kill as many overlords as you can, against terran you try to snipe as many supply deposits as you can and against protoss as many pylons as you can. Or... let's just bully protoss and aim to kill the cybernetics core in an early push and try to get a cybernetic warp gate upgrade lead, as you sit back and snipe the cybernetics core over and over again

[@437thx1138]

At work 4 hrs left Starcraft today theme song in your voice pops in my head Cant listen to music to knock it out. Thanks Kevin. Keep the vids coming

[@kogian95]

Win while being countered. If the opponent does not tech into a counter, then build units that are weaker than the enemies comp. Based on billzzards unit tips. Using better units on defence is ok as long as the attacking units does not counter the enemy units.

[@shoeoffhead3692]

Tide-Pod challenge. Play a board-game with your gf challenge. Maybe Monopoly or Risk.

[@sc2youtube744]

Could you please do a macro nexus build? 2nd Nexus in the main base with the purpose of extra worker production and extra chronoboost?

[@teddanhedberg4137]

tech expand, u only get to build a tech building each time you expand, so with no natural u only get to have a gateway, with a natural a cybercore or forge, with a third a robo, stargate, twilight or forge. and so on, also the tech building needs to be built at that nexus

[@aitordominguezcomin9147]

What about the SOS strat. Building a nexus in ur oponents main base to create a probe. That probe build a pylon where you can warp dts.

[@no1yourewrong]

Howdy neighbor build, proxy a nexus but show you are a good neighbor and don't use it for aggression until the opponent attacks the proxy base

[@shieldphaser]

Hmm. Just proxy nexus in the opponent's third and treat it like your base. Could be fun.

[@mittensdacat9220]

Mass oracle and mass disrupter but you only defend with the oracles and only harass with the disrupters.

[@loudaccord]

Your Zerg is fun to watch... maybe mass infester and hijack their army?

[@hamburgers7817]

Kevin your KZbin is so good I sub on twitch even though I never watch you on Twitch. Lol