And finally a win..

Random v Random on Xel'Naga which turned into Zerg v Zerg.

I did a 15 Extractor / 14 Pool opening figuring it was safe not knowing his race.  He 10 pooled me but I saw the Zerglings come with plenty of time to get a few Spine Crawlers up.  By the time he pushed in they were up and my Queen was in place and I defended easily.  He tried again a little later but my Speed upgrade was in and my Roaches were up, at which point I decided to expand.

He expanded after me and got quiet so I increased the upgrades and started in towards Spire Tech.  I figured he was either massing Roach / Zergling in which case I would need Mutalisks, or he was teching to Spire Tech...in which case I'd need Mutalisks.

When I started harassing he turned out a lot of Hydras quickly, which I was impressed with.  But it wasn't enough.  He failed a push before the Hydras were out and failed another after.  Both pushes were inspired by the fact that my Mutas were tearing apart the Drones and Overloards in his main base.

+ 26 Points, Gold League Division Rank 34, Remaining Bonus Pool 436

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/8734

"Early" on a Saturday morning

I'm always curious what kind of competition I'll find on the Ladder at 8 AM on a Saturday.  I got my ass handed to me.

ZvP on Xel'Naga...he went heavy Gateway early and I kinda went for a Roach / Hydra mix.  Unfortunately he brought along Observers so my Roaches had trouble getting to the couple of Collosus.  The second push he made went a lot better for him because he tripled his Collosus count and I didn't have my Corruptors out yet.  Then it was over, I just couldn't produce enough and his Collosus with a few Stalkers were basically unstoppable.

Lesson Learned - I seriously underestimate how many Collosus (last night it was Carriers and Void Rays) a Protoss can churn out on 2 Base.  Also if you see him going Collosus get those Corruptors out sooner.

- 9 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 225

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/2210

Apparently I lied

After sitting outside in the sun and reading for a while, I felt like playing again.  I really wanted a win today.  At least one.

This game wasn't it.  Terran versus Protoss.  I built as much as I could as fast as I could but damn if he didn't build more faster.  He had more workers, more units and a stronger army faster.

I don't understand what's going on.  Why am I losing every game so far?  I'm focused on trying to keep my money low, produce out of all my buildings constantly, not queue up.....I'm building as much as I can as fast as I know how to and am suddenly, today, getting blown out of the water.  In the Silver League.  Am I that bad?

 - 7 Points, Silver League Division Rank 46, Remaining Bonus Pool 386

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/174416-1v1-terran-protoss-xelnaga-caverns

Warpgate x 4

I don't know how to 4 Warpgate.

I don't know how to defend a 4 Warpgate.

So...when I'm presented with PvP I typically lose.

I built a pylon in the back of my opponents base which he failed to scout and I warped into his base.  Unfortunately the timing of this with my 3 Warpgates was equal to the timing of his 4 Warp onto my ramp.  So what started as an attempt to keep him back in his base until I could get more going in my base..turned into simply a failure.

- 7 Points, Silver League Division Rank 75, Remaining Bonus Pool 170

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/163181-1v1-protoss-xelnaga-caverns

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

Probe Rush

Random vs Random, he rolled Protoss and I rolled Terran.  I got my Barracks building and sent my SCV out to scout his base...as it was leaving all his probes rolled into my base and started attacking my SCVs.

WTF.

So I pulled most off mining and sent them into attack, set my scouting SCV to attack his one remaining Probe and...well..defended.

He eventually GG'd out.  Odd.

Oh well, I'll take it.

+20 Points, Silver League Division Rank 6

Bleh

I lost in 7 minutes.  Sometimes I feel like the worst player ever.

He one-based roaches.  I had an original plan to go for mech and when I scouted the roaches thought "hrm...I'm going to want banshees".

To be clear, I don't have a solid mech build.  I don't have an early banshee build.  So after that it just fell apart for me.  I was stuck in the middle of basically doing 3 different builds and all of them badly.

So, today's lesson is - it's more important to choose a game strategy I'm comfortable executing than one that might be best suited for what I'm facing.

-14 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/145033-1v1-terran-zerg-xelnaga-caverns