Hooray!

Changing my TvT to include a Factory as the second production structure and pushing in Tanks with that free siege mode is really super strong.

Before the Replay:

My opening wasn't the smoothest it could be.  I kept myself from being supply blocked but I wasn't getting things built quite on time.  It wasn't so off that I was too worried though.

I didn't get my aggression on quickly enough, however, so when I did finally push out with what I had, he held it off pretty well.  I did good damage, but also lost quite a few units.  He was already on 2-base and I managed to expand behind.

As I expanded to my third he dropped me and pretty much destroyed my mining SCVs.  I hadn't noticed (good job...) that my Main had mined out.  I sent those to the 3rd, defended the drop and turned to push.  I met his army 1/2 way and destroyed them.  It wasn't close, but he did pretty good damage.  I figured he had more incoming minerals than I did (though I was catching up with my MULES and SCV production..) so I decided to push and stop his mining.  He had a 3rd and 4th, I hit both and contained his army at his 2nd and he GG'd out.

After the Replay:

Despite my opening not feeling very smooth, it was ahead of schedule compared to his.  So that worked out =)

After that though he looks a lot better than me.  He's keeping his money down, he's producing from his structures, he's expanding, getting upgrades.  My money's high, I'm not using all my buildings, I'm just barely getting my 2nd up as his 3rd goes up, his income is shooting past me.  At the 14 minute mark, it seems amazing that I'll win this game.

Oh maybe this is it.  He queued up 1 SCV to build a bunch of Supply Depots.  But he was producing units faster than that SCV could complete the Supply Depots.  So eventually he just kept hitting the supply cap ceiling and just waiting it out, giving me time to catch up.

He still hits 200/200 well before me, as he's doing his drop.  At 20 minutes when our armies move out to meet I'm at 154 supply to his 200 supply.  I have 1 Raven, 58 Marines, 4 Marauders, 4 Tanks, 4 Hellbats, 1 Viking, 2 Thors and 4 Medivacs.  He has 7 Medivacs, 1 Thor, 30 Hellbats, 1 Tank, 18 Marauders and 18 Marines.  So wow...those 2 supply cost Hellbats were really hurting him.  30 Hellbats to my 58 Marines is almost even.

His upgrades were "better".  +3 attack where I had +2 attack, +1 defense.  Maybe not better...maybe that counts as even?  This Thors were 2/2 though, my Tanks and Thors were 1/0 (attack/defense).

At the end of the fight I have 110 supply to his 104.  Jesus.  Hellbats are not a 200/200 composition for TvT I guess?  At least not against my composition.  He has 2 Hellbats left, 4 Marines, 5 Medivacs and 1 almost dead Thor.  I've still got 20 Marines, both Thors, all 4 Tanks, etc, etc....  GG!

+ 26 Points, Silver League, Division Rank 43

Insta-Loss

Random vs Random.  I spawned Zerg.  A brief thought occurred to me.  "We could both Spawn Zerg, I could not go for the 1-base Roach I plan on for vs Zerg and he could 6-pool me and I could get screwed."  It was followed by "Nah, let's just 15 hatch 14 pool like usual and see what happens."

Screwed.  Though he didn't 6-pool me.  He 7-pooled me.

Before the Replay:

Nothing to say.  He 7-pooled me and I went 15 hatch.  He won.

One interesting thing to note, he was level 90 (all 3 races leveled up all the way) and has a *lot* of 1v1 games under his belt over the past week.  I mean, a lot...according to his Match History.  But he's unranked in Season 4.  How?

After the Replay:

Nothing.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 38

"You've been promoted!" - Finally back to the Silver League!

Score!

Before the Replay:

I macro'd hard up front, or tried to.  I always feel rusty these days.  I had plenty of overlords out and got a good scout (Zerglings would have been cheaper...) when he moved out so I had Spines and Roaches out and ready by the time he showed up.

I did a 15 hatch, 14 pool.  It set me up well.  I took a 3rd, started making Mutas and was moving out with them when he pushed again.  I felt I had enough to defend with my Queens, Roaches and Spines so I flew my Mutas in.  I held and my mutas destroyed the probes in his base and he quit.  Victory!

After the Replay:

Boy did I spend my money terribly.  I kept leaping up, I was doing a terrible job keeping it spent.

Interestingly he did have a second base, but then he only built probes from that one.  And he never came close to saturating his first base.  So he was doing a good job of keeping his money spent, but he was doing a terrible job of building a lot of probes.  At 11 minutes I had 50 drones to his 25 probes.

+ 46 Points, Silver League Division Rank 58, Remaining Bonus Pool: 429

Another Horrific Loss

ZvZ this time.  I see a bad pattern forming here.

Before the Replay:

I went 15 hatch, pool.  I was expecting an early rush of Zerglings.  I didn't get it.  So I killed an Overlord with my Queens and rushed with some slow Lings.

They got over agressive and went in for his Queens at his second where they were instantly surrounded by his Speedlings and crushed.  He then countered, went Baneling and beat me.

If I hadn't committed my Slowlings, had just scouted and pulled back, I wouldn't have been instantly crushed and my Roaches might have had a chance when his Speedlings + Banelings rolled my base.

He was Diamond.

After the Replay:

He also did a 15 hatch into pool.  Mine was actually faster, as was my APM.  He just managed his upgrades better, had Banelings and my pre Replay analysis was right on about my mistake.  If I'd kept my 'lings and been able to get my Roaches up, I think I could have won.

1 Placement match Won, 2 Placement matches Lost, 2 Remaining