The StarCraft path-finding hack
One of the reasons Starcraft is interesting as an e-sport is because bugs like this have kept the game in racial balance for over a decade.<p>For example, the game was not designed to give mutalisks the ability to stack on top of each other. However, at some point in the early 2000s, it was discovered that when 11 mutalisks were grouped with 1 overlord, the mutas tended to stack: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfqQYJzq7o0" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfqQYJzq7o0</a> . This meant that an attacking player could deal the damage of 11 units while only exposing the surface area of 1 of them. Using this technique, a pro gamer named July won the 3 OSL tournaments: <a href="http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/July" rel="nofollow">http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/July</a> .<p>With respect to the path-finding behavior described in the article, there is a funny aspect the author doesn't mention: mining workers still collide with buildings while mining, just not other workers. This lead to a technique known as the manner pylon: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmS2ghQyAYI" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmS2ghQyAYI</a> . If a protoss player builds a pylon in their opponent's mineral line with great timing, they can trap their opponent's workers between the minerals and the pylon. This renders the workers useless until the pylon is killed.<p>In Starcraft-speak, "manner" means being respectful (such as saying "good game" when you lose). The manner pylon got it's name because it is so incredibly annoying to deal with, it will cause anyone to lose their manners.<p>For those of you who might be familiar with Starcraft, but not the competitive scene, you should know that pro players are executing these techniques at a rate of hundreds of APM (actions per minute): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4UTDudShDY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4UTDudShDY</a>