How does Idra command his initial drones to mine individual mineral clusters?

See his VOD cast - http://www.justin.tv/eg_idra/b/278424082

I'm noticing he's executing some command while having all drones selected.

So, I looked as the link and here is what I saw:

1. Idra selects all drones (by boxing)
2. Idra sends drones past mineral line, then to a specific patch
3. Idra selects 3 drones
4. Idra sends those drones to a second patch
5. Idra selects 2 drones
6. Idra sends them to a third patch

Let's see it in slow mo:

Its in 2 seconds he has split his drones in groups of 2. Its beautiful, like watching ballet

Another way to split drones is to hit the hotkey to select a single idle drone, and click a mineral patch. Do this 6 times really fast, and each drone goes right to its own mineral patch. Something like,

• F1
• Right-click 1st mineral patch
• F1
• Right-click 2nd mineral patch
• F1
• Right-click 3rd mineral patch
• F1
• Right-click 4th mineral patch
• F1
• Right-click 5th mineral patch
• F1
• Right-click 6th mineral patch

This is much easier than selecting the individual drone and mineral patch, but it's still to hard for me to do effectively.

But honestly, as @Aardvark says, the initial split is not that important. This amount of analysis / practice would be better spent on something like hydra micro or macro.

So while I have seen this done in game, it's something I don't care to perfect.

• Edit: I don't know what the hot key is to select a single idle worker... I think it's F1 for me (i'm on lefty grid).

You may be witnessing legendary micro but it is probably just a lag spike (where he is in the game and can select each unit individually). Most players do a 3/3 split to two sets of minerals.

To do this hold CTRL during the loading screen and press F1 when you enter the game (select all + idle workers) right click on one mineral node then box 3 drones (drag and select) and have them go to another set of minerals.

Keep in mind though that in the scheme of a game of starcraft your initial worker micro is pretty small potatoes compared to your decisions later in the game (forgetting to build workers, supply blocking etc)