Hey all! This is something that Tasteless and I have mentioned before on the GSL, and something I’ve been meaning to write for quite a while now.

The meanings of some of the most powerful and descriptive words we have to describe actions in StarCraft 2 are being eroded by people who are using them wrong. In this blog post I want to clear up one of those words. The word, as you may have guessed by the title, is “Timing”.

Timing is often used in StarCraft commentary as the shortened form of “Timing Attack”. This is an old phrase from way back in StarCraft 1. It’s a beautiful phrase, full of meaning and history. Ever hear of “eee han timing!!!”? Korean commentators would masterfully use this phrase (meaning “this one timing”) to convey huge meaning to very specific situations.

Currently, many people use the word to mean any attack. This is not the case. Here are some examples of actually timing attacks and what makes them timing attacks:

Attacking right after or before an upgrade or upgrades finish.

This attack is timed out precisely. Often times you will see a pro player arrive at a location for an attack just as some amount of upgrades finish. This is planned and executed on purpose. The player is using the power added from that or those upgrades the moment they finish to extract maximum results. A good example of this would be Terran attacking Zerg right as their 2/2 upgrades finish. Because the upgrades just finished, there is a better chance that Zerg may not have finished 2/2 quite yet, thus giving Terran a powerful timing attack. Another good example would be Terran pulling his SCVs to attack Protoss right before Psi Storm. This is the moment where the SCV pull will be most effective, and Protoss’s heavy investment into the Psi Storm upgrade, tech, and Templars, will have him at his weakest against such a move. Note: Sometimes attacks will line up without planning. Often times, a player will be trying for something, such as attacking right before Psi Storm, but miss his window of timing. 

Attacking at a fixed army or supply amount.

Sometimes strategies are based off of a powerful or critical mass of units in a certain situation or match-up. Something about the army the player has made makes it especially strong at that moment. A simple example of this would be a Zerg deciding that he or she will attack precisely upon a fast Roach max. Think of old ZvP and Stephano’s fast Roach maxes. This utilizes a very fast, and sometimes unexpected, large amount of supply. By instantly using this large supply to maximize the difference in supply between you and your opponent, you are executing a timing attack. Another example could be the older mech-style ~150 supply pushes. Around 150 supply (I can’t quite remember exactly the number), the mech army becomes much stronger and more put together. By attacking the moment the mech army hits this critical mass, you are preforming a timing attack.

Attacking at a fixed time of your opponent’s weakness.

Attacking right before your opponent gets Psi Storm, as outlined in the upgrade section, is a good example of this (this category overlaps some). Some other upgrade based ones would be attacking right before Terran’s Stim or Zerg’s Speed. 

In addition to exploiting your opponent’s weakness in the area of upgrades, timing attacks can also be used to punish things like expansions. For instance, an attack you are planning on hitting a Protoss right after his Probes are transferred to his 3rd base can be considered a timing attack. At that moment, a Protoss player has spent 400 minerals on a Nexus, lost some amount of Probe mining time, and his new mining base has not provided additional income with which to gain him an advantage.

Bonus: Anti-Timing.

An anti-timing is as it sounds. It is attacking at the worst possible time based upon your upgrades, economy, or opponent’s position. Here are some examples:

You just lost 2 medivacs full of units targeting down a Nexus and some Probes. It was definitely a move that got you ahead. You now immediately attack, correctly realizing that you are now ahead. This is an anti-timing. You spent army to deal economic damage. You are now ahead in economy. By waiting a couple of minutes for your economic advantage to kick in and not only replace your units, but build you many extra units in comparison to your opponent, you could could preform a powerful timing attack. Instead, you (again, correctly), realized that you gained an advantage in the game, but misidentified how to utilize the advantage, and attacked. You lost army. Protoss did not. The loss of Nexus and Probes does not immediately effect Protoss’s army size. This is an anti-timing.

You have a really strong army. A lot of supply. Maybe you just maxed out. Your 2/2 upgrades are 90% done. You attack. This is an anti-timing. The added bonus of waiting for the close-to-finishing upgrades to finish outweighs the power of the talk nearly every time.

Now….

I don’t suggest that people use the phrases “timing”, “timing attack”, or “anti-timing” more, or even every time they are seeing one of these situations. That would suck. Overusing words makes them lose meaning. I simply suggest that everyone should understand what these phrases mean. StarCraft 2 is the most beautiful and complex game ever made, and a well used vocabulary describing what is going on can make it even more enjoyable.