Placement Matches 1 of 1

Apparently for Season 2 you only need 1 placement match.  My 1 match placed me in...

Drum Roll Please

Silver League!

It was a ZvZ.  My last few ZvZ games I played I went Speedling / Baneling and lost.  No surprise, I'm not that great at Baneling micro and I know that one-base Roaching often is winning this matchup.  So when I saw it was a ZvZ I decided to just do a blind one-base Roach.

Interestingly, my opponent out expanded and out built me.  He went for early Zerglings, followed by a strong Roach army, followed by a strong roach / hydra army, followed by Muta harass and followed by Zergling run-by.  I built roaches and then some Hydras and finally some ultras.

I won based on two things.  One was a little bit of extra micro....he'd 1-a his units into an attack and I'd position mine for a little better arc, burrow hurt roaches, etc, etc.  The other, and much bigger one, was upgrades.  I don't know why people don't think about upgrades in mirror matches.  You have the same units fighting each other....upgrades!

Watching the replay I just killed his 9 hydras and 20 roaches with my 20 1/1 + burrow roaches.  After he pulls his remaining units back and starts researching tunneling claws.  Without burrow =(  Meanwhile I'm getting grooved spines for my upcoming Hydras (he didn't have that for his) as well as tunnling claws and +2 ranged just finished with +2 armor going down.

Eventually he pushes on me with a Roach / Hydra / Muta force and I destroy it except for the mutas.  So I leave the mutas to kill my stuff and move into his base, destroying almost all his harvesting drones.  Before the fight he had something around 50-60 drones, after he had 23 while my spawning Hydras eventually dealt with his Mutas.

At the end, and even after watching the replay, there's a lot of time where it feels like he's just outplaying me.  But without getting those upgrades his army just couldn't overpower mine and eventually I wore him down.

+ 0 Points, Silver League Division Rank 5, Remaining Bonus Pool 17

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/156529-1v1-zerg-xelnaga-caverns

Tal'darim Altar? New patch...new maps

I don't think I've played on Tal'darim Altar before, so that was fun.

I played versus a Terran who early expanded...which I think I saw Jinro do on this map in the TSL last weekend?  I'm guessing that's where this guy got it too.  It was interesting, because you can basically take your natural and wall off right away, it's not hard to do.  And it's a big map, so you've got time.  He had bunkers going up when my first Zerglings came out, so it just wasn't worth it for me to try to early attack.

Because of the space, though, I just went Muta / Zergling.  I'm not sure if he's done much early expanding...because he didn't do a good job of saturating.  He'd make a good stream of them when he was thinking about it, then he'd get distracted by making a bunch of marines or building new buildings or my mutas harassing his SCV line and he'd just....stop.

He wasn't that great...he could only build a few things at a time because he wasn't building more unit producing structures either.  But...a win's a win and I'll take it.

Lesson learned - keep harassing.  Mobile armies on large maps can overcome a lot of challenges.

+ 22 Points, Silver League Division Rank 6, Remaining Bonus Pool 2230

Bonus pool should decrease as I play this week as I believe you don't accrue any more for the season now that the leagues are "locked-in".

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/156530-1v1-terran-zerg-taldarim-altar-le

Plateaus

This is not the first time I've hit a plateau in my laddering / game play.  The first time it happened I was still in the Bronze League.  I was playing Zerg exclusively, they'd been my race in Brood Wars and they're the race that makes the most "sense" to me for whatever reason.

I don't know what the problem was, exactly, but the fix was to start playing Random.  Maybe I just didn't understand the other races well enough, or something, but once I started playing all 3 my overall wins increased a decent amount.  Enough to pop me quickly up into the Silver League and about 1/2 way up that ladder before I stalled again.

The second time was 100% economic.  My macro game just wasn't good enough.  I'd been so busy trying to get my hands around unit strategy, builds, etc, that I didn't have my hands around expanding concepts, building my drones and overseers (scvs and supply depots, probes and pylons) at the right time.  I made a few changes.  First, never build a building I can't always be producing out of, and always produce out of it.  Second, always be building a worker from every structure that can build one.  Third, keep an eye on my supply count and always stay just ahead.

I lost a few games, probably my first 6 in a row, after I made that change.  But eventually I started getting used to it.  I couldn't micro at all...I had to simply 1-A my units towards wherever I wanted them to go.  But over time I got used to macroing like that and was able to get back to playing the rest of the game.  More to the point, I won a lot of games.

Then I hit my 3rd plateau, at the top of Silver.  I was winning 3 of 4 games against other Silver Leaguers and losing 3 of 4 games against Gold Leaguers.  This is the one I never solved.  I ended up taking a break from the game for 5 or 6 weeks and started this blog when I came back.  I'm still not back up to the level I was then, but I'm getting there.

Clearly I need to change something.  I've been logging little rules here that will help.  Always have a plan, choose strategies that use units I'm comfortable with, etc, etc.  I just don't know if my problem is that I'm not keeping up with my rules and strategies well enough, or if I need another whole paradigm shift in the way I approach / play.

The most important thing, of course, is that I continue to have fun.  Which is partly why I still play Random.  Terran is my best race, I don't have stats but I'd be willing to bet I have the highest win ratio as them.  Then Zerg, which is the race I'm most comfortable as and finally Protoss which I pretty much suck at.  But keeping that level of variety in the game helps it to stay...fun.  If I was constantly churning out the same 2-3 strategies with the same units I'd be bored to tears and probably frustrated to boot.  Sure, I could practice my Protoss and 4-warpgate rush my way to Gold or even Diamond, but I have no interest in that.  I'd much rather stay Silver and have fun.

Just as long as I felt like I was learning.

1.3 rolled out to the servers today, which I think everyone was expecting.  This patch locks me into Silver for the rest of Season 1, so now I have a week or so to play through my remaining Bonus Pool and try to secure my place in the top 8 of my Silver League.  I think I'm 6 or 7 right now, and most of the players in the top 15 haven't played in weeks...we'll see if the patch brings anyone back or sees other players shooting up through the League.  Hopefully I can secure my place in the top 8, though.  We'll see....

ZvZ is always so frustrating for me

I guess I lost because I didn't scout his expansions well enough?  He'd expanded up the other side and I didn't spot it.

We both went for Broodlords.  He got there with a mix of almost all types of units.  I went heavy Roach with Zergling backup until I could get my Hive up.  I thought I was doing so well...for a while I was doing so well..but at the end he had more bases so when my units rolled him, he wasn't dead.

I failed I failed I failed I failed I failed.  I failed.

- 11 Points, Silver League Division Rank 8, Remaining Bonus Pool 2203

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/151847-1v1-zerg-gutterhulk

Cannon Rush

I think the subject says it all.  We spawned close positions on Metalopolis and I scouted the Cannon Rush but still couldn't defend it.  Once he had it in place and I started beating it back he simply built a base at my Natural (plus another inbetween) and started making DTs.

Lesson Learned - Cannon Rushers are dicks.  Honestly I don't know...defending that Cannon Rush has always been a huge challenge for me as Zerg.  I should have thrown down my Spine Crawlers sooner, I guess?

- 13 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/151844-1v1-protoss-zerg-metalopolis

More Harass - Reapers this time

I've played a couple of games since my last post.  Not every game inspires me to write something down, at least not always right away...

I won a Protoss v Zerg where I built a bunch of Sentries early and failed to stop his Zerglings.  I technically won because he D/C'd but I was about to win for real anyway...but I had a moment where I remembered something I posted earlier.  It's important to choose a strategy that I'm comfortable with.

I'm not comfortable with sentries.  I could (and should) practice with them.  They're a powerful spell casting unit that I could probably do some great things with. I'm happy to have a few in my army for guardian shield or to push SCVs away from Bunkers I'm trying to kill, but otherwise I don't often use them much.  Outside of "practice" time, though, I should focus on strategies that involve units I enjoy using.  And if I don't win with those, I should keep trying until I find a way to win.

Anyway, tonight I played a TvZ.  He opened with a one-base Roach expand.  I had just finished watching the Day[9] Daily from Wednesday where, at the end, he told us about this next week's Newbie Tuesday where he wanted us to submit Speed Reaper build games.  So I thought "Hrm...I could open with Speed Reapers".

Speed Reapers were my favorite way to open as Terran before they got nerfed to need a Factory first.  I hadn't done it since, preferring to open with Marauders.  But I figured I'd give it a try...man did it work great.

I walled off while I got my base up and running.  The bunker deterred his early Roach push and I countered soon after with my Reapers.  I had two good spots to hit him with the Reapers and tried to keep going back and forth between them, keeping the Watchtower also clean and using Scans to push his creep back (or at least try to prevent it from getting too far towards my base).

He couldn't leave.  Everytime he'd try my Reapers would be in his base, shooting his men.  What happened eventually was he split his Roaches between two spots and went with a Spire to get Mutalisks because he didn't know how else to get out of his base.  By the time his Mutalisks were moving out to attack me, my army was ready to go and I was moving on his base.

He had a good Roach count and Mutalisk count but he didn't have a lot of upgrades and his economy wasn't as deep as mine, so I was able to keep pushing on him until he had to GG out.

+ 20 Points, Silver League Division Rank 6, Remaining Bonus Pool 2196

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/151656-1v1-terran-zerg-gutterhulk

Edit: Briefly featured on the Day[9] Episode.  I am, of course, relatively terrible...but it was still fun to watch.

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/4925514/

!= Protoss

God I am so bad at playing Protoss.

I have no idea what I'm doing.  I follow what I feel like is right and I just get rolled.  I build the wrong units at the wrong times, I try to use their abilities and misclick.

I'm terrabad.

Lesson learned for the day - I need to just memorize Protoss builds until I get more comfortable with what I'm doing.  Which is my least favorite thing, but there's clearly something about playing protoss that I just *DON'T* get.

- 13 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/156532-1v1-terran-protoss-slag-pits

"Okay, gg"

This game went better.  I early expanded as Zerg again, but on Scrap Station which is always nice.  He did a good job of scouting me out and pushing hard with 4 Warpgate but I made a strong effort to keep injecting larva and making drones and spitting out replacements.

I went muta / ling which is a favorite of mine, I'll admit.  Kept harassing, kept him from expanding (which he didn't really try to do until it was too late, anyway) and just kept coming back.  He did manage to stop me from taking a 3rd a few times and just kept doing a good job of reproducing his stalker heavy army.

But he just didn't have the income to keep up with my endless zerg units.

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/148895-1v1-protoss-zerg-scrap-station

One Base Roach Rush...

Well, I don't ZvZ a lot and it is certainly a bad matchup for me.

Usually I go one-base Roach but today I decided to try something different and go early expand Zergling / Baneling.

Failure.  My opponent went one-base Roach Rush.  WORSE - I scouted it and failed to realize.  My overlord scouted the Roach Warren and I was so distracted by..I don't know, ponies, that I failed to notice the tech structure up.  I knew he was one-basing it and just didn't stop to think.

WTG Me.

Lesson for the day - if you're going to scout, pay attention!

- 11 Points, Silver League Division Rank 8

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/148896-1v1-zerg-backwater-gulch

Forgot to harass? Or anything?

Things I forgot in this game - Harassment & a Plan

Zerg versus Terran.  I went early Hatch and had no plan.  Kinda started going for Roaches with an eye towards maybe transitioning to mass muta...maybe.  Winner.

At the 8 minute mark he rolled (ROLLED) into my base with a few dozen upgraded Marines with their Stim and their Combat Shields and they just wiped me out.

Lesson for the day- Don't forgot everything else you've learned.  Scout better, harass better, be more prepared.  More information is better.  Don't play dumb.

- 11 Points, Silver League Division Rank 8

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/147716-1v1-terran-zerg-backwater-gulch

10th 1v1 Protoss Victory!!

Getting 10 1v1 Protoss wins shouldn't feel like the overwhelming victory that it does.

The map was scrap station and I was worried that I'd just get overwhelmed by his safe economy and mutalisks so I tried to pressure early with Zealots and go Void Rays.

The Zealots never did anything useful.  I scouted with a probe but his drone wouldn't leave it alone so I couldn't get a proxy pylon down.  The Zealots ended up being base defense from his Zerglings which were annoying but not.. devastating.  I should have built Sentries, but I wanted to use all my gas on Void Rays.  I thought about it and dismissed it more than once.

I rallied my Stargate to the island and just kept sending in the Void Rays.  Once I destroyed a lot of Drones the first time around he started going mass queen while he tech'd up to defend himself.  I kept charging and damaging the Queens and pulling back.  Once he started getting ahead of me in the Queen to Void Ray damage ratio I sent in the Zealots to shut down his Natural expand and then merged my forces.

The game felt good..in so far as it felt like I really earned my victory.

Lesson for the day - Harassment works.  Second game today where I made an effort to keep putting pressure on my opponent.  Make him feel defensive and trapped and force him to make the mistakes.

+ 22 Points, Silver League Division Rank 6

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/147084-1v1-protoss-zerg-scrap-station

Harass, Harass, Harass

I took last night's lesson to heart with this game this morning when I spawned Zerg vs a Protoss.

I think this was my first game on Slag Pits?  I liked it.  But then again, I won so =)

He went 3 Gateway Robo and I went Zerg/Roach into Muta.  I harassed with my Zerglings a few times, shutting down his Expansion attempt once and making him bleed for it a second time.  I then started hitting the front and back with my Roaches and Mutas.  I kept losing my Roach Army which was a mistake..I should have pulled them out more and kept them alive, but his army was a lot stronger than mine and he had observers to spot my burrow.

Fortunately I had expanded a third time so when he rolled over my Natural and Main, while I was able to kill it off, I was by no means dead and was able to rebuild those hatches plus some more and immediately throw my Mutas back in the fight, which is when he quit out.

This was one of those games that gets my heart pumping the whole time.  I'm super keyed up now.

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division, Rank 7

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/156538-1v1-protoss-zerg-slag-pits

Max Army

I seem to have a problem where I'm not comfortable with waiting until I have a maxed out army, but I'm not harassing either.

So I'm just sitting in my base, letting the other guy build better than I am.

I played a Terran vs Protoss.  My strategy was to go heavy on the Marauders and then incorporate Vikings with my Medivacs later on.  Unfortunately when I tried to attack with the Marauders he already had quite a few Immortals mixed into his Zealot / Stalker army (larger than my Marauder army, btw) and a Colossus with the extended range.  He smashed me and then retaliated.

Am I really that awful?  I guess so.

Lesson learned - I don't know?  I don't know.  I haven't learned anything from this game yet other than that he was better than me.  Do I need to expand and keep teching?  Just wait for him to hit me?  Should I be doing drops?  Opening with a banshee harass?  I don't know yet.

His army isn't that mobile, right?  Immortals are slow, the Stalkers provide cover for the Collosus which needs an army to be effective.  So maybe lots of drops, keep him on the Defensive.  Attack where he's not.

- 11 Points, Silver League Division, Rank 8

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/146897-1v1-terran-protoss-backwater-gulch

TvT makes for a nice break from PvP

It's always nice finding yourself in a matchup you think you can handle.

I played a TvT here which is something I tend to be comfortable in.  I go Marine / Marauder, get some Vikings and Medivacs and put on lots of pressure.  Use Stim to close range with the Tanks, throw a few Tanks into my line with Siege to provide a retreat path for my ground units and I'm all good.

So I'm on Metalopolis and I have control over both Xel'Naga towers when I see him streaming a big Marine force my way.  I toss down a bunker and....and the attack never comes.

More marines now.  Then Marauders in addition and more Marines.  I throw down another Bunker.  Still nothing.  More and more units stream by.  He's got Tanks and Vikings and Medivacs now.  Where is he?

So I move out of my base because I've held off my expand for too long and there he is.  Just waiting....tanks Setup, units in place.  I was impressed.  Unfortunately for him he was working off of 3 rax, a factory and 2 starports.  I was operating off 5 rax a starport and a factory so I was able to replenish a lot faster and eventually just kept rolling over his army.

Probably would have been a different game if he'd checked the Xel'Naga towers.  Or at least, a closer game.

+ 26 Point, Silver League Division, Rank 8

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/146806-1v1-terran-metalopolis

Dark Templar

Another PvP.  I decided to try to do this one right, I built my Gateways in a better timing fashion, I scouted where the opponent was...I got my warpgates up and forward Pylons and upgrades and started putting pressure on.

And when I got to his base?  He was severly Cannoned in.  WTF?  I didn't get it, but I got suspicious so I went to throw down a robo facility but it was too late, he had a DT in my base ripping me apart.  I tried to get some cannons down but I couldn't, he was destroying all my pylons.  I tried to get in his base and around his cannons, but I couldn't.  I tried to stay away from his DTs but it didn't do any good.  I couldn't win.

This is, for the record, all he does.  Cannons in and builds DTs.  Going through his match history that seems to be the only tactic he uses.  I don't understand how that can be fun.  Obviously it isn't very successful, he's won 382 games out of 753 and is firmly in his Silver League.  But it's successful enough for him to enjoy, I guess.

Lesson of the day - I need an early Observer in my PvP.  I guess.  Also I should be more agressive in my scouting probably, try to get a better sense of what he has.  Sometimes I do, but if I don't really think I care I don't bother.  Clearly this time I should have cared.

- 14 Points, Silver League Division Rank 8

http://sc2replayed.com/replays/146756-1v1-protoss-backwater-gulch

I don't know if I ever win as Protoss?

I just can't figure out how to play Protoss?

My plan was to open Zealot heavy while I got up Blink and a Stalker force and then roll out with heavy Blink Stalkers.  I opened with a double Gateway for a lot of early Zealots and at the 8 minute mark I had a couple up, transformed into Warpgates (x4) and my Expansion started.

For a while towards the end he had 4 Warpgates he was producing out of and I had 10.  But he was ahead of me in upgrades (I was devoting all my cash to producing units so I stopped at 1/2 and he was quickly (16-17 minute mark?) at 3/3 so his units were just ripping mine apart.  I changed my tactic slightly to bring in some DTs, he had a single observer that I was able to take out which bought me some time.

Eventually he put down a second set of 4 Warpgates and despite his smaller economy was able to then just crush me.

I guess..next time...I don't know?  I made a lot of mistakes.  I should have scouted earlier so I could have put more pressure on with the fast Zealot build to make it more worth while.  I should have harassed with the DTs harder, try to push him back to his base.  Managed my upgrades better, I spent a lot of time with a lot of minerals trying to figure out what to do with them.

Lesson for the day - PvP sucks.  Okay, no.  Early Zealot build needs scouting and Mirror Matches require upgrades to not just be important, but a top priority.

- 11 Points, Silver League Division Rank 8

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/146743-1v1-protoss-backwater-gulch

Must Macro Harder

I played as a Zerg vs Protoss.  My plan was to do a massive Roach / Hydra army.  I harassed early with Zerglings while I built up some Roaches, and pushed on his base a little once I broke his expand.  I kept my macro up and expanded at every opportunity.

Unfortunately I failed to build enough to keep up with the expanding.  I had more minerals than I could use.  I kept throwing down more queens and more hatches...  Eventually I hit my supply cap and just worked on tech until I was able to shut him down.

I didn't want to do a full on "engaged" fight against his big Warpgate + Collosus army, so instead I focused on keeping him contained and starving him out.  I set my Overlords to generate creep and sent them around the map to the various spots and just kept my eye out.

Today's lesson - Keep focusing on macro during battles

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Rank 8

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/145751-1v1-protoss-zerg-backwater-gulch

Okay, I feel better

It's nice to get a win right after a loss.  I rolled Zerg versus a Protoss on Delta Quadrant.  He went heavy heavy Warpgate and pushed a lot of units out front.  I expanded slowly (went for the pool first because of the short distances) and built roaches and zerglings once I got my natural expand running.

He took the center and held it...so I kept harassing him until I destroyed those units.  My plan was to build hydras once I could afford to, but I kept having to build more drones and reinforce my units...and eventually he rolled in with Void Rays.  I popped out a few extra Queens and they dealt with the Void Rays while I took my Roaches up and destroyed his mining operation.

As good as it made me to win, though, his base was odd.  He had a lot of warpgates he clearly wasn't producing out of and he only had like 20 or so workers...

+22 Points, Silver League Division Rank 8

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/145707-1v1-protoss-zerg-delta-quadrant

Well, that was bad

Sometimes it really feels like I don't know how to play at all.

I rolled as Protoss versus a Terran on Metalopolis.  I tried to go early Zealot pressure, which was dumb I guess.  He went early Marauder was just ripping me apart.  He was able to expand, I never did.  I probably could have but I just didn't feel like I was keeping up with what was going on in my base.

Overall I just felt awful all game.  I felt like I was making it up as I went, which I guess I was, and I had no idea what I was doing.

Today's lesson - I have no clue.  Don't play bad?  God that was just awful.  I can't even bring myself to rewatch it.  Maybe later.

- 12 Points, Silver League Division Rank 8

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/145704-1v1-terran-protoss-metalopolis