Thursday, March 29, 2012

Something else I'm working on..

...is numbing myself to playing a lot of SC2 games.  Coming back to play it feels exhausting to play one game, much less two or three.  So I figure the more I play the easier it'll be to play.

Another PvP win.  And I never even left my base.  He made 19 Probes in 15 minutes.  I made 52.

He opened double Gateway and just started chronoboosting out Zealots.  I finished my Warp Gate Tech at 5:40.  I had a 21 Probes, 1 Zealot, 2 Stalkers and 1 of each on the way.  He had 17 Probes, 8 Zealots and we both had 2 Gateways.

When he supply blocked himself a minute later at 11 Zealots, he rolled out.  I was throwing up my expand at the time.  I quickly cancelled because I was sure I wouldn't hold that low ground and retreated to the bottle neck entrance of my base.  For the next 90 seconds while I destroyed his Zealots he stopped all production.

He threw a few more small waves of Zealots at me.  Then he started doing a few Void Rays at the back of my base while putting Zealots at the front of my expansion.  After a couple of tries and fails, he quit.

 + 28 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 37, Remaining Bonus Pool 217

http://drop.sc/147938

I didn't use to blog every game...

But I feel like I'm playing so many less now a days that it feels like I should?

PvP cross positions on The Shattered Temple.  You'd think I would have lost that straight out of the gate.

We both did Gateway heavy builds.  I just out macro'd him a bit and went for Blink Stalkers where he went for Charge Zealots.  Blink > Charge and I won.

It was a good practice game for focusing on my macro.  Making sure I build more buildings when it was time, and constantly built out of them.  Using my chrono boost when I meant to.  Keeping up probe production and going back to use my warp gates even when I was trying to use my units in his base.

 + 30 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 43, Remaining Bonus Pool 231

http://drop.sc/147922

ZvT =(

I just can't seem to win this matchup recently.  About 10 minutes in I just get slaughtered by this army of Marine Marauder Medivac.  He had some Hellions with the crew this time.

Again I had all day to see it coming and prepare.  Had my mutas up this time and good macro and injects and base harass and a lot more Speedlings and he still just ripped through me.

Do I *have* to go Banelings?  Is that the only answer?  I hate the idea that I *must* do a particular build to deal with something and refuse to believe that's the only answer but in multiple games now I've done as well as I can do with other strategies and it just hasn't been good enough.

 - 10 Points, Platinum Division Rank 46, Remaining Bonus Pool 246

http://drop.sc/147918

Solo Protoss 25 Wins!

TvP on Metalopolis.  I got Marine rushed hard early and wasn't quite ready for it.  I managed to hold but just barely.  Just kept myself from being supply blocked, kept building my units and just slowly fighting back.

Once I rebounded he just didn't have the end-game to be ready.  I expanded and he was throwing down missile turrets everywhere (anti-DT I guess?).  So I just kept expanding and building more stalkers and zealots and getting upgrades and won =)

I think it's telling to my track record as Protoss that I just got my 25th 1v1 Protoss win and have over 100 Random 1v1 wins.

 + 30 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 46, Remaining Bonus Pool 245

http://drop.sc/147914

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Just one game tonight

Long day at work, home after 9...tired.  I logged in to play...just going to play one game.

Just a reminder for myself, focus on the macro.  Build workers, build out of my buildings, keep from being supply blocked, everything else will take care of itself.

I got rolled, no contest.  I ZvT I went for Muta-Ling.  At 8 minutes he dropped 3 medivacs into my base.  I saw them coming, but my mutas weren't up yet.  He had a tank and a few stim'd marines and they slaughtered my Speedlings despite my good surround and that they were in place before they dropped.  He dropped into a surround and just slaughtered them.

So...uhh....lesson.  Next time move my Queens into positions to help repel the medivacs and...what?  No idea.

Never got supply blocked.  Thought I did a good job of macro'ing.   Of course I had twice the harvesters on twice the bases and he had the same income so hooray for MULEs.  Guess I'll just have to try again next time.

Lost 6 of my last 7 games.  Epic =)

 - 10 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 46, Remaining Bonus Pool 254

http://drop.sc/145943

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Continuing the same practice

And I got my ass handed to me again.

ZvZ this time on Shattered Temple.  He was super aggressive.  Lots of Spine Crawlers in my main right off the bat.  I was 15 hatch / 15 pool opening and thought I fended it off okay.  But apparently I didn't or didn't recover well after because he quickly had his expand up and a crap ton more units.

I got supply blocked quite a few times.  Not focusing on the macro I need to be focusing on.  It's just very hard to ignore my units being destroyed constantly or the tactics being used forcing me into emergency management.

I remember when I went through this previously that it was both hard and a bit exhausting but eventually got easier.  Of course I was fighting less skilled opponents then too...=)

More practice needed I guess...ZvZ is my least favorite after PvP.

 - 10 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 46, Remaining Bonus Pool 246

http://drop.sc/144754

Right back on the bike...

Okay so I lost.  Time to try again.

Well...that went better.  He GG'd in 10 minutes.  TvT, my first time on Korhal..apparently it's a cross position 2 player map?  Anyway...he rushed Reapers on me but the first one wasn't crossing until I had Marines at both watchtowers, so I killed it.

One eventually managed to get in my backfield where my SCVs were, but I already had Marines ready to move in to deal with it and another group ready to attack his base at the same time.  So I moved into the ramp and just kept sending reinforcements.  Eventually I broke his front door and by the time my upgrades were started and second base was just getting going, the game was over.

I did get supply blocked once, so I screwed that up.  My money climbed too, when it came time to doing army stuff I kept building but stopped building new buildings.

 + 28 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 45, Remaining Bonus Pool 246

http://drop.sc/144754

Time to refocus tonight

Here's the plan.  Less worry about managing everything.  I'm going to just focus on building constantly out of all my buildings and keep myself from being supply blocked and keeping my money low.

That's it.  No time spent paying much attention to my armies or anything.  Just those 3 things.  Low money, always building, not being supply blocked.  Here goes.

Well that totally sucked.  ZvP again.  I had a lot of production and a lot of units.  And they just all got wiped hard.  I held my own against a few attacks but could never counter.  Every time I tried to push back he always had a stronger force than I did.  None of my armies stood up to his.

Then I started getting flustered and frustrated and started to get supply blocked and miss injects and...well the game just fell apart.

 - 10 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 49, Remaining Bonus Pool 260

http://drop.sc/144753

Monday, March 26, 2012

Second try today...

After earlier's focus problem, let's give it another go here.

The focus is on macro.  Mining and building.

So of course I loaded into a PvP and got ROLLED.

We basically wiped each other's forces early and then he reinforced better than me and stomped me with a crap ton of Stalkers.  I still can't really wrap my head around PvP..so at least that hasn't changed in the time I wasn't able to play.

- 10 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 46, Remaining Bonus Pool 252

http://drop.sc/143475

Focus

I'm having significant problems coping with everything I'm trying to be doing.  I can't keep macroing well enough and issuing commands to my units.  It just feels like everything's happening too quickly.

Zerg vs Protoss on Shakuras.  I opened 14 hatch 15 pool.  My timing's still off on getting my speed up for my speedlings.  It's not working as smoothly as I remember it working before, so I guess I need to keep practicing that.

I was making an effort to keep my injects up which I did okay with.  But after a while I had 5 hatches running and that was hard.  I had Speedling / Muta which totally failed.  Which I should have known.  My speedlings just can't deal with his Colossus deathball and I just kept losing to him.

My muta harass wasn't great, but it was okay.  I was killing probes and keeping him pinned in his base, keeping him on 2 bases and forcing him to build Cannons and Stalkers.  So eventually he just pushed out.  He had good forcefields and just *destroyed* my Speedlings.

After that it was pretty much over.

Then he was as a jerk after the game and sent me messages in Battlenet asking me why I didn't quit earlier, blah blah blah.  It wasn't like I hung out running around.  When he destroyed my mining bases and armies, I GG'd out.  Just another guy in another game I've /blocked.

- 11 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 44, Remaining Bonus Pool 251

http://drop.sc/143425

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

...and then totally rolled

Got rolled by a Zerg on Shattered Temple who was just a hell of a lot better than I was.

He made so much more stuff than me and I did terribly at continuing to produce and running a smooth build.  Then I kept throwing away units trying to do pressure.

There's really not much else to say.  I played awful compared to him.  My production was terrible, I got supply blocked quite a few times and I just engaging in terrible situations.

- 11 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 45, Remaining Bonus Pool 215

http://drop.sc/139738

Well that was straight forward...?

My first time playing on Entombed Valley..not that I saw any of it.

ZvZ, we spawned in cross positions.  He did a 14 pool and I did a 14 hatch.  It seemed like a big map, I figured ZvZ (I was Random and he wasn't) I had time to choose my opening unless he 6 pooled.  And even then I could probably hold it off.

He went hatch after pool and then tried to put a Spine Crawler in my base which I stopped, so he did it again and I stopped it again.  While he was busy with that, though, I built Zerglings and ran at his base to discover he was going Baneling.

Which I suppose I should have expected, I know it's what I used to see all the time in ZvZ.  And here's where it gets odd for me.

He did a good job of harassing me, trying to draw my units off and get banelings into my mineral lines.  He just didn't do *enough* damage with them ever, not enough to stop me from teching to Roaches.  After a good hit with the banelings taking me down to 1/2 of his drone count, I countered with my now large Roach army while I took my 3rd and he GG'd.

That was it?  All I had to do was counter Roach once and he'd quit?  Good to know I guess!

+ 28 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 43, Remaining Bonus Pool 215

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Dashboard

When I drive I look at my left side mirror, my right side mirror, my rear view mirror, my dashboard and from time to time even my front windshield.

I do these things and quickly make decisions about what's going on and what I need to do.  Change lanes now or later.  Speed up or slow down.  Think about getting gas.  Whatever.

There's no reason I can't apply that same skill set in Starcraft.

Specifically I'm talking about my being supply blocked.  I don't have a good feel for how much supply I have at any given time and how quickly I'm filling it up.  So I should compensate by being more aware of what my stat is at.  It's right there in the corner.

So tonight I'm going to roll that into the macro + constant agression.  Here goes:

Well it worked?  I did okay, I did get supply blocked once.  Shakuras...I opened 14 expand, 15 pool into Slowlings because I'm terrible.  But he was worse.  He fended off my harass lings with marines and his Hellions, so I threw a few Sunken Colonies (umm..what're they called in this game?) and Held my Queen at the ramp.  He saw he couldn't take it so he backed off..at which point my lings came, surrounded his Hellions and killed them.

It was pretty much GG after that.  He had a walloff but my Speedlings could get through the marine sized hole he hadn't plugged so I destroyed his expand, took a 3rd, locked up the others and built mutas.

+ 28 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 45, Remaining Bonus Pool 221

http://drop.sc/139291

Monday, March 19, 2012

More Macro = More Agression

Okay, new day - same play.  Lots of macro, lots of agression.  Here goes...

And it worked, another victory.  Though to defend my opponent, he was even more rusty than I it seems. Another player just coming back after a long break from the game.

Antiga Shipyard...he did a 14 expand into Roaches.  His income was quite a bit higher than mine early on, but he just wasn't spending as well.  I did good damage to him on my first push at his base, so I kept the pressure up.  Never really pushing in hard, just sitting on his edge and picking off targets until he had a big loss, then I rolled in and it was over.

Well, then I rolled in and 5 minutes later it was over, as he was playing the game where he continues to expand everywhere to avoid death so I just patiently looked for him while building more Orbital Commands all over the map.

+ 28 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 50, Remaining Bonus Pool 228

http://drop.sc/136460

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

If I'm not attacking, I'm losing

Okay so today's plan is this - if I'm not attacking, I'm losing.  However, I can't attack at the expense of my macro so...

Macro first but keep up the harassement.  If my harass dies, that's okay.  If my guys just don't get micro'd and lose terribly, that's okay.  The point is to just keep my units active and my opponent off while I macro macro macro.

Clound Kingdom LE
Monza

Protoss

PvZ, the only match-up I've ever felt 1/2 way decent at with Protoss.  I harassed early with my Probe and then Zealots and just kept it up.  I expanded and expanded and expanded.  If I saw I killed most of his Zerglings, expand!  If I saw I made him cancel his expand, expand!  It worked well, he couldn't get his economy off the ground..he was so afraid of my Zealots and Blink Stalkers that he kept turning Drones into Spine Crawlers.

Felt good to be agressive and just keep pushing him back.  I kept varying it up, so while the core of my army was typically Zealot or Blink Stalker I threw in some Phoenix and DTs here and there.  And just kept attacking him.

Sometimes my attacks weren't any more sophisticated than A-Move into his base, but sometimes that's all it took.

My money climbed pretty high a few times though, so I'll have to work on that.  I still get too caught up in what's going on.

+ 30 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 60, Remaining Bonus Pool 204

http://drop.sc/133809

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

#(*$ Banelings!

So I haven't had as much time to play as I'd like over the last 10 days or so.  This is partly because work's ramping up with stuff and partly because I got engaged the weekend before last and my fiancee and her sisters went from 0 to crazy in about 30 seconds.

Anyway, what time I did spend playing I played Starcraft Masters or whatever the new custom game is called.  It's pretty fun...for those who aren't familiar or haven't tried it, basically you have 30 different levels where you have to win a little micro battle scenario.  So one may be to escape a situation with your SCV, another may be to defeat a Zealot with your STIM'd Marine or defeat 2 Zealots with 2 non STIM'd Marines.

I actually felt pretty good about it.  I haven't beaten all 30 levels yet, but mostly I know how to defeat the various scenarios, I just don't have the skill or practice at executing the maneuvers to do so.  So that just takes practice.  Right now the one I'm stuck on (aka the one that frustrated me into spending my evening playing Mass Effect on the 360 last night) was where you have a group of Zealots on a narrow little island who have to deal with a large mass of Banelings.  I need to get them split out away from each other and in a Hold position, just having trouble executing the commands fast enough.

On to the game...

TvT on Cloud Kingdom LE, a map I'm not totally familiar with yet.  I didn't get ROFL stomped..but I didn't do great.

I decided to try to ease my way back into playing the way I used to with this game.  No more just settling for just macro'ing well, I wanted to try to bring everything I could.

So I decided to go for my heavy agression Barracks style into Battlecruisers.  It works pretty well but it really needs me to be agressive.  I wasn't.

I tried to be a bit early on but he chased me out of his base.  He went heavy heavy mech, lots of Tanks and lots of Vikings.  I actually held him for a bit with my overwhelming macro, but ultimately his crap-ton of tanks won out.

 - 0 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 83, Remaining Bonus Pool 212

http://drop.sc/133415

Trying drop.sc to see how it is.  Frustrated with the constantly problems on SC2Replayed.com and they don't have this map available in the Manual Upload options...

Friday, March 2, 2012

Better? Better!

I felt a bit better about this game.

I mean, to be clear, I lost.  Rolled at or by the 15 minute mark like all the others since I got placed.  But I felt better.

Cross Map on Shakuras.  He didn't bother to check the Xel'naga towers.  I guess he just didn't think it mattered or just didn't realize that it was hurting him?  My one probe helped me defend so many times.

One of my problems at Protoss, just generically, is I'm not good at counter attacking.  So when I defend something, I never really feel comfortable moving out immediately.

Anyway, my harvester count pretty much kept up with him.  I expanded before he did, but didn't do a good job of keeping up with my upgrades and teching properly.

His tactic was to just keep hitting my front with Barracks units until he broke through.  Eventually he did, but if I'd just done a few things better I could have won.  So I call that a win =)

- 0 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 94, Remaining Bonus Pool

http:///www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/18210