Team Micro Arena - like if Starcraft was Cagefighting

Starcraft is an instrument of precision and a game of great complexity. Learning to master it is not easy, but all the more rewarding once You have acquired the necessary skill to play at a high level. However, rather than just hacking away in regular games, there are more fun challenges by which You can learn a particularly crucial aspect of Starcraft game play. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce Team Micro Arena.

Team Micro Arena is a concept that stretches back in time until 2004, and as the name implies it’s all about micro management – the manner in which You as a player control the individual units at Your disposal to the maximum effect. When You play TMA, You are playing Starcraft in a different style than normal – the usual rules and dynamics of the game have been changed in the Map Editor to create an entirely different game play experience. For newcomers to the phenomenon, this is called UMS (Use Map Settings) – and another very popular example of such a mini-game is the well known mod to Warcraft 3, DoTa (Defence of the Ancients).

The reason why Polygon reVue is concerned with Team Micro Arena is not just because it’s a wonderful waste of time and a very fun way of playing Starcraft differently – but all more because it’s such an intuitive way of learning some of the hardest moves in the business. The game of Starcraft is the most competitive electronic sport in the world for one reason above all: balance. At the core of the concept of balance lies the harmony between macro management and micro management.

To macro is to control one’s in-game economy and unit production in order to have a stronger army than Your opponent, to micro is to use that army to its utmost capacity. Team Micro Arena does away with macro management, enabling You to focus on the sexy stuff: how to move, attack and dance with Your units like they were the Royal Ballet of Ownage. That, my friends, is a lot of fun – but this challenge will also make You far more capable to win regular matches in normal games of Starcraft.

The concept behind Team Micro Arena is simple. It’s based on team work, two or three allies who help each other out are fully capable of coming back from a defecit against opponents who are collaborating less well. The game takes place on a uniquely designed map where You strive to destroy the opposing team’s Nexus, and in order to do so You use a wide variety of unit combinations and hero units.

These You can ‘buy’ based on Your amount of kill points – there are no resources to harvest (unlike in regular Starcraft) but You get awarded points for the number and type of enemy units that You slay, which can then be used to get a stronger army yourself. Certain unit combinations are good counters for various strategies, and so it is necessary to be one step ahead of Your opponents and to balance the unit choices of Your allies. In essence it’s the same formula as in normal Starcraft multiplayer – but in a faster, more streamlined and mayhem-infused way. Basically, it rocks.

Team Micro Arena as a community has been around for a long time and for veteran Starcraft players this is no news. However, very recently the concept behind it has become far more accessible to newcomers than ever before, which is why this site (which is dedicated to the pursuit of making Starcraft as a game and a subculture more open to everyone) is very eager to promote it. In line with the times, one of the brains and driving motor behind TMA – Venom5 – has gone to great lenghts in order to create an extensive library of tutorial videos and introductory material. It is now easier than ever to learn Team Micro Arena, which in turn means that it’s now a lot more fun to learn the sacred art of micro management.

To be a good player means that You must be able to perform both macro and micro – but to micro well is to play Starcraft like an art form. Some players focus on the macro aspect, making sure to have a superior economy and thereby a never ending flow of units to throw at one’s opponent. That certainly works, and it’s the modern way by which the game is played in South Korea. However, those Starcraft moments that have turned into legend have been those moments of utter brilliance when exceptionally talented players have used units and their abilities in ways that were thought to be impossible. Greatest of all micro players is, without a doubt, the Terran Emperor – SlayerS_`Boxer`, and here is a testament to that:

The quickest way to get better at Starcraft is to learn how to maximise Your economy, that way You often win by simply having more units than the enemy. In order to beat the best, however, You need more than that – You need to possess some of that magic which Starcraft as a game is uniquely capable of delivering. That is micro management, and Team Micro Arena is the custom built battle field for honing those skills. Click here to visit their Youtube-library to see how it works, and click here to visit their site and start playing. Merry microing, everyone!

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Tagged as: boxer, esports, starcraft, team micro arena