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

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

I don't even have to rewatch this one...

TvZ on Metalopolis.  I let him build all he wanted and he won.  He hit me early with a few Zerglings which didn't get past my wall-in.  But instead of countering hard and forcing him to make Zerglings, I just sat back and one-based Barracks units while he expanded all over the place and rolled me.

But my macro felt a bit better.  My build wasn't very smooth, but I was doing a decent job of keeping up with SCV production and managing my units and upgrades.

Certainly felt better, so slowly getting my basic play mechanics back.  Once those start feeling less cumbersome I can worry more about the in-game tactics.

- 0 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 94, Remaining Bonus Pool 115

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/18181

Btw, it seems that SC2 Replayed.com is broken again and I'm having to manually upload these.

The thing I liked about the site was that it would let you build a profile around a single player.  The lack of the auto-parse upload is really frustrating...but I stay because it at least still lets you differentiate between the Leagues.

Computer's fixed! Macro is not...

So it's been a long time since I posted because it's been a long time since I've been able to play Starcraft II.

My computer crashed hard during an upgrade in late fall.  Unfortunately this was right before I was stuck in bed for a few weeks recovering from surgery.  So getting it fixed and working ended up becoming a multi-month project.

But I'm back and I'm playing again.  The goal I set for myself before the PC crashed was to play 15 games a week.  I'm still going to try to hold to that, so we'll see.

I've already played my 5 placement matches.  I went 3 and 2 which wasn't bad, but the games all felt awful to me, win or loss.  I forgot to build workers, I sat on a lot of cash, I controlled my units poorly.  It was just terrible.  How I won 3 of those games boggles me.

But it gets better, because after loosing my last of the 5 games, my second overall loss in the series, I got ranked.  Platinum league.

WTF?

So...let's queue up.  My goal is not to win.  Winning would be great, but for now defining a win for me is to just macro well.  Build my drones / scvs / probes, keep myself from being supply blocked, constantly produce from the structures I build.

We'll see how it goes.

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ZvP, I lost in 10 minutes.  He one base rushed me hard.  Brought in Void Rays, put a pylon in my base and just spawned a crap load of Stalkers in my base.  I couldn't do anything.

My opening felt really rough.  I had no plan...no timing or anything.  I didn't really know what I was doing, so I'll have to work on that.  Just need to get all the rust off and remember how to play.

- 0 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 96, Remaining Bonus Pool 90

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/18132

Haven't played in a few days...

...how bad could it be?

Pretty Bad.  TvZ in close positions on Metalopolis.  I'm not going to beat around the bush.  He crushed every pressure I tried to put on him, macro'd like freaking crazy and just contained the living crap out of me.  I lost wholly and completely.

No lesson learned.  I'll rewatch it at some point and try to gleam some kind of..knowledge form it.  Right now I just freaking suck.

- 13 Points, Gold League Division Rank 30, Remaining Bonus Pool 226

http://www.sc2repalyed.com/replay-videos/5161

Back in the top 8!

Woooo

TvZ on Metalopolis, cross positions.  He opened with some Zerg agression and then quickly built up a strong Roach army and transitioned into heavy Mutalisk harass.

And I still won.

I did a straight up heavy Barracks play.  I like my Barracks units.  1 Factory and 1 Starport to support, constant (or as constant as I can remember) upgrades from the Engineering Bay and Armory.  Concussive Shell first once I get a second Barracks up, and Combat Shield then Stim.  It takes so long now that I'd just rather have the extra HPs on the Marines first.

His supply was actually ahead of me for most of the game.  I tried pushing on his base a few times.  Got crushed every time so instead I just did what Terrans do best, turtled and built.

He took his third when he pushed out with his Mutalisks.  He also shut down my Second as I flubbed the defense against those mutas so it worked well for him.  I was certain that the game was over at that point.  Except he didn't micro them exceptionally well and I was eventually able to kill them all, destroy the whole force, which gave me time while he rebuilt that muta force to reexpand to my natural and rebuild my Marines with some extra Thor / Viking help.

He got greedy and took a fourth, but never really attacked.  He had a huge army of Roaches, 160 supply to 100 but he just was sitting on them, letting me turtle and upgrade.  He finally moved them out, but his timing sucked - he hit me just as the PF was finishing at my third and while I lost my whole army he pretty much lost his and was forced to retreat the rest of his Roaches.

He tried to attack again with his roaches, but he underestimated the strength of stimmed Marine Marauder Medivac with 2/3 upgrades so despite his 196 to 131 supply advantage, I crushed the attack and took the opportunity to secure my 4th (Gold) and 5th.  He took his Gold at the same point and started his tech to Broodlords, but I just parked Siege Tanks on the towers, destroyed his workers and forced his army to come to me.  When I won that fight, he GG'd out.

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7, Remaining Bonus Pool 138

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/2586

Solo Hot Streak 5!

Gaah, finally.  I know that the Ladder's supposed to put you against even opponents so you're, in theory, looking at a 50% win rate.  But I've had plenty of losing streaks for 5+ games, I figured I was eventually due for a winning streak of 5 games.

After winning a TvT on Slag Pits (put early pressure on to keep him from expanding, then contained him to his base and natural while I took the rest of the map) I was ready to call it quits for the evening when I noticed I'd won my last 4 in a row.

Well clearly if I was on a hot streak I couldn't just quit now.

5th game was a ZvP on Metalopolis, cross positions.  I scouted close by air first for fear of early Void Ray / Phoenix harass but he wasn't there, so I opened 14 gas/pool to be safe until I scouted the cross positions, at which point I immediately threw down a second hatch and tried to macro for all my little silver league fingers could manage.

I had good warning for his first attack, he stopped to clear my Zerglings off both towers so I had a few Spine Crawlers and Roaches up and ready.  It wasn't too much, just some Stalkers and Zealots, his Sentries stayed home for Defense.

The second attack I had some warning of as well because I was pushing out and ran into it.  He tried to hit my natural from two angles but I held my D tight close to the Hatch and fended it off pretty easily.

After clearing his Pylons out from around the ramp he didn't move out.  I figured he was tech'ing and expanding (had already expanded to his natural, as it turned out) so I took my third and worked on getting my Hive up.

Turns out he wasn't tech'ing yet, just massing units so my third got quickly sacked but again, I held - meanwhile he took his 3rd (right under my overlord).  He was very agressive and hit me again, this time with a Colossus ball but my Hydras were up with Roaches to take the damage so I was able to deal with it, but 3rd was sacked again.

I felt like I had the game, I was winning every fight more efficiently which is huge for ZvP, I just needed to starve him out so I sent a wave of Zerglings to kill the probes at his 3rd.  When he moved to defend I sent everything else out, my Roaches and Hydras hit the army that was defending the 3rd and my Zerglings hit the Natural, destroying all his mining and he GG'd.

+ 30 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 236

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/1870

Speak of the Devil

There's a ZvZ.  I have a one-base Roach opening that I really like.  Unfortunately it leaves me 100% exposed to fast Mutas, and I haven't found a way to tweak it to account for that because 3 Queens are not enough to hold off the Muta pressure, in my experience.

So after my last post I rewatched those ZvZs from last night again (the second game he did not 6-pool, btw) and queued up - bang, ZvZ.  Okay...let's try something more traditional.  Metalopolis, close by air...so I go for a 14 hatch pool opening with delayed gas.

He Roach rushes me.  I've already got the spawning pool started when I see his Warren go down so I throw out a few lings and send them to his ramp.  I wait to see the Roaches to put up the Spine Crawlers though.

It's not enough time.  5 or 6 Roaches come running down at my base from his base (reasonably long distances) and the Spine Crawlers can't finish in time.  My Queens and unfinished Crawlers are destroyed and I lose.

GRRRR.  At least it only lasted 6 minutes, I guess.

- 9 Points, Silver League Division Rank 21, Remaining Bonus Pool 282

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/1541

For some reason it's not showing both players on this manual upload.  I'm sure the file's fine, but the display only shows the 1 player.  Odd...I know I typed both in.  And you can't edit SC2Replayed.com manual replays.  Oh well, I'll probably re-upload them all properly once the site is fixed.

ZvP I'm much more comfortable with

I certainly don't win all my ZvPs, far from it I'm sure, but it's a much more comfortable scenario for me than a lot of other matches.  Mass hydra, hydra roach, mass speed/baneling, muta ling.  Whatever....

Admittedly the guy I played wasn't exactly a master leaguer.  He opened heavy on the cannons, I think he planned on cannon rushing but I shoo'd his probe out, early expanded and went to mutas as quick as I could.  He expanded and went heavy gateway units.

Fortunately it was metalopolis and we had close by air starting positions so I put zerglings outside of his natural and mutas outside of his main and just made him run back and forth and back and forth or split his army into sizes that were manageable for me.

Eventually he just GG'd out.  Well he quit..I guess he didn't technically say GG.

Lesson for the day?  Attacking in multiple places is good.

+ 28 Points, Silver League Division Rank 55, Remaining Bonus Pool 83

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/159954-1v1-protoss-zerg-metalopolis

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

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

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

Not like yesterday's game

Yesterday I played a PvT against a brand new player.  Brand new.  First game on the ladder.  He warned me ahead of time that he was awful, and he was right.  No offense to him, he just wasn't practiced or familiar with what he was doing.  I rolled Protoss and futzed around for a while with stuff before I blinked into his back and rolled Zealots and Immortals up the front of his base.

Tonights game was not like that one.  I played on Metalopolis vs a Random (turned out to be Zerg) player. I put some early pressure on him with Stalkers and some Sentries.  I failed to make a plan though, so I just kinda built more Stalkers and expanded when it felt right.  He early expanded so he couldn't do much about the pressure, but eventually (surprise) once his economy and tech got up he rolled me with zerglings, roaches and hydras.

I don't play versus many zerg and less who use that style.  I'm totally familiar with the zerg ability to do that, just rarely see it...so it was actually kinda fun.

I did poorly and spending my money.  And I failed to make a plan.  So, tonight's lessons:

 - need to keep up with building structures that allow me to build stuff that kills stuff
 - need to remember to make a plan, always come up with a plan

-11 points, Silver League Division Rank 7

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/144110-1v1-protoss-zerg-metalopolis