Protoss #4

Before the Replay:

My Protoss play is getting plenty of much needed practice.

This was a PvP, he scouted me pretty heavily early.  I don't know if he macro'd because he saw I was macroing or if he didn't have an agressive 4-Warpgate descendant build like what I usually see in PvP that kills me early.

I struggled a bit at the beginning to get everything off the ground, or at least it felt like it.  I didn't have many units, I didn't have many upgrades, but I just kept at it and he gave me time while trying to get his Colossus death ball up.

At that point it was all about having plenty of capacity for reinforcements, upgrading and tech switching.  Got my Archons up then got my Carriers up.  He didn't seem to expand as much as I did, once I destroyed his 3rd pretty thoroughly he GG'd out.

Expanding for gas has been critical to my ability to pull off a win with this build.  I'm going to need to keep that in mind if I run into situations where that expanding isn't an option.

After the Replay:

He didn't build his Gateway until he saw I was going for mine.  Then he threw it down and almost instantly also a forge.  He wanted to get that expand up asap.

Except...not.  After the Gateway / Forge he threw down another Gateway and a Cybernetics core to start researching Warpgate.  Also a cannon at the front, but he's not really blocking off the ramp.

Once he could afford it he got +1, but it wasn't right away...I think the Forge was a waste of money?  At least for a while.  He got an early +1 which I suppose may have been good if I were rushing him...? But if that's what he was afraid of wouldn't have have been better off to build a better wall?

Anyway, by the time he's got Warpgate done, 3 Gateways, his Twilight Council started and his expand Nexus begun warping in I've already finished my expand Nexus, I have 4 Warpgates, admittedly no upgrades but a 16 food lead in army (pretty even in Probes).

Within a few minutes that's a 26 food lead and now I'm starting to pull away from him in Probes.

At 14:20 he spots my 3rd with his Observer and drives his army in.  My food lead's up to 40 now, 13 of those in Probes and we pretty much draw even in the fight, coming out with an unchanged food differential.

As he gets his 3rd up and starts building his Colossus army I pretty much pull away.  The Colossus helps his food catch up, but I'm on 4 bases, throwing down a ton of Gateways and leveraging my stronger income.  I probably could have harassed some here...but I don't think I needed to.  I think until I'm maxed it may suite me better to just upgrade, expand, get my ability to reinforce up to par and prepare to tech switch.  When he attacked at 21 minutes the game was basically over, I instantly shot up to a 60 food lead and started countering to win.

+ 28 Points, Silver League Division Rank 10, Remaining Bonus Pool 66

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272856

Protoss...again?

He was pretty good humored at the end, but still didn't GG when I won and he quit.  *shrug*

Before the Replay:

Wow...Protoss again.  3 games in a row now I think?  It was...hard.  I did basically the same thing I did last time.  Just tried to macro smart, build, keep up with warp-ins, not get supply blocked, etc, etc.  I did..okay.  Still got blocked but not as much as before.  Had trouble remembering to turn my Gateways into Warpgates, whoops.

He tried to proxy me with a Barracks.  3 or 4 times.  He was surprisingly not behind for how many times he tried and canceled....so I was impressed by that.  His plan was pretty simple, build a lot of Rax units, hit me in a few different places with drops, try to out macro me.

After defeating a few drops I hit my supply limit and just rolled him.  My upgrades were in, I was getting my infrastructure set to switch to Carriers and he actually did me a favor by killing off a few probes so when I countered, it was over.

After the Replay:

It really seems like all his proxy Barracks were a real waste.  After we're pretty even, but he could have been way ahead if he hadn't wasted so much time and money.  My harvesters quickly outpaced his and despite his MULEs my income followed.

I could have done a lot better job spending my money.  I should have been pushing out sooner, tech switching sooner, maybe expanding even more for better gas income.  The big problem was I felt I wasn't making decisions fast enough, I suppose that'll just come with practice.

+ 24 Points, Silver League Division Rank 11, Remaining Bonus Pool 80

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272850

Redemption!

Another ZvZ.  At the beginning he didn't respond to my gg for a few and then said "sorry, was AFK....gg".  I figured he was probably telling the truth, but could have been using that time to start a 6 pool or something, so why risk it?

I went 14 pool, got up some defensive Zerglings and then took my second.  He didn't attack until I had my speed upgrade on the way.  I countered after defending, upgraded to Speedlings just as I got to his base and he managed to defend.  We went back and forth while I tech'd to Roaches, but I was doing more damage and eventually won before I could get my first Roach out.

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Ranking 18, Remaining Bonus Pool 33

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272297

P.S. Turns out he was AFK, his first build action was a drone at 24 seconds.

PvP Loss

No surprise.  I'm terrible at PvP.

I thought I did a good job of building, teching, etc, etc.  But he just 4 gated and pushed my ramp.  More units and better played broke down my front.

Bleh, whatever.

- 10 Points, Silver League Division Rank 29, Remaining Bonus Pool 13

http://drop.sc/256247

New Goals

After some time to reflect on last night's losses I'm ready to try again tonight.  I'm just no longer trying to win =)

For tonight and for a while until I get comfortable again it's just back to basics.  Don't get supply blocked, keep my money low, keep producing from my structures.  If I can do that, it's considered a win even if I get rolled.

...

And that first win doesn't count.

He had a probe in my base early and bobbed around a bit.  Embarrassingly I let him kill an SCV who was building but he stuck around enough to get stuck in my base.  Eventually he ran off to the fog at the edge of my base as my first Marines were coming out and started summoning a Pylon.  I killed his Probe and he quit.

Apparently I ruined his plan at 4 minutes and 29 second by destroying the Pylon in my base?

+ 38 Points, Silver League Division Rank 28, Remaining Bonus Pool 28

http://drop.sc/254220

I now suck at TvT

I'm not sure what's changed in the time since I've played.  I'm not getting enough agression out early enough, that's for sure.  But it also feels like people are more prepared for that, so I'm hitting a hard wall with my agression.

What I quickly run into is a scenario where I feel like I'm constantly failing to catch up until finally I run into the Terran turtle army, loose everything against it and it's GG.

Honestly it feels like I'm just not fast enough to execute the strategy.  So maybe I just need to keep playing...  This is one of the challenges of not having more friends who play SC2 any more, makes it hard to get more games in every week.

- 9 Points, Gold League Division Rank 73, Remaining Bonus Pool 286

http://drop.sc/226314

7 minute lair...

This time I got my two hatches going and went straight for lair tech to get some Overseers.  I wasn't going to be DT rushed again.

And I wasn't.  But mostly because he didn't make them...at least I was prepared had he.

He threw most of his forces into an early attack, I defended and did some decent damage to him in return.  All the while my macro stayed on top and I just out macro'd him.  He tried to get VoidRays up while I was getting my Mutas up and I beat him to the punch.

+ 30 Points, Gold League Division Rank 68, Remaining Bonus Pool 257

http://drop.sc/224026

Hrm, pathing and micro

I could not move my army.  ZvP, he did the death ball thing but not...fantastic.  I really didn't feel like he was a great player, I should have beat him.

I was doing well but I lost my whole army.  My roaches...got stuck in Zealots.  It was the oddest thing. I don't know what happened, suddenly they couldn't maneuver..none of them.  Somehow he or the AI charged Zealots around some 20 Roaches and then they were stuck.

Something I'm going to have to watch out for in the future.  Otherwise I should have won that game.

Well, I also needed to do something more later on.  Gotten Infesters up.  Actually I totally forgot about my Infesters.  I was heavy on gas thinking "what am I supposed to be making right now?".  I even had the Infesters pit up, but once I lost that initial army like that I was so overwhelmed with replenishing and trying to keep up the pressure and keep my upgrades that I just forgot.

So basically I kept making mistakes until I loss.

Anyway, placed into Gold.

- 0 Points, Gold League Division Rank 16, Remaining Bonus Pool 220

http://drop.sc/218867

Computer crashed...again

This time was pretty straight forwardly my fault.  I spilled water onto the desktop.  Anyway, once I got the PC working again Season 7 was ending so I just waited for Season 8 to begin.

Aka, today.

Because I missed all of Season 7, I have to go through my 5 Placement Matches.  Let's get them out of the way!

Anyway, I just got rolled.  Protoss who went 2 base on Ohana LE (first time for me, new this Season or last maybe?) and just massed Colossus.  For some reason I *wasn't* prepared for this.  Stupid =)

4 Placement Matches to go!

http://drop.sc/196621