Another day..

Boy am I a glutton for punishment =)

And finally!  A win I earned!  A match against a fellow Bronze player!  Someone with some manners who GL'd and GG'd.  And a promotion to Silver!

Before the Replay:

ZvT.  I felt like it was safer to build towards an opposing Bio army than Mech.  Only because that's mostly what I've been seeing recently.  Also Banelings hurt Mech pretty well, too.

I scouted a lot and saw him building and starting to move out.  MMM, but moving across the map slowly.  He stopped to kill my creep tumors which was nice.  Gave me plenty of time.  He clearly didn't want to get stuck on creep and surrounded.  Which gave me time to get my units into position to surround him.

The first time I took out his army I made the mistake of trying to counter immediately   Of course the bunker and his units there quickly killed that idea, but at least I didn't go all in.

I threw up a 4th base and just kept building.  I had more money than I could spend.  Threw down a few extra hatcheries and focused on Lings and Banelings with upgrades while teching to Mutas and then Hive.  Once I hit Hive and saw he was sticking with MMM + Tank, I went for Ultras and pushed to win.

I love the Muta / Ling combo.  Hit one place and hit the other.  He can't split his units as well.  He gets flustered.  Worst case scenario the first time, one gets good damage in.  Then in the future if one can't get good damage in, it's because he's split his army up too much and I can expand more, shut out his expansions, starve him out.

Felt good!

After the Replay:

He has his second base down before 6 minutes.  Wow.  I should have made 2 Zerglings early to scout that.  Now I know.

Also he put his 3rd up when I put my 4th up.  Again, didn't realize.  I was bad about putting Overlords around the map to watch those.

After my first split attack that took his 3rd base he was shaken.  He had a bunch of SCVs just sitting in his main not doing anything.  Maybe he thought to push and win?  He pushed pretty hard, took my 4th, but I was able to stop it.

A lot of my play still needs a lot of work.  I should have been spending my money better earlier.  Spending my larva more pro actively.  Keeping my upgrades going a little sharper, getting my expansions earlier.  But not terrible either, a win I can feel good about.

+ 46 Points, Silver League, Division Rank 51

Never give up, Never surrender

If I keep playing and keep looking at my play analytically, I'm bound to improve.  Right?

Not yet anyway.

Before the Replay:

I think it's telling that I've lost how many games over the past 7 days and my rank hasn't changed.

ZvZ.  Followed my planned strategy, 1-base Roach.  I did it, didn't get rushed, felt I could expand and tech.  So I did.  Went Muta.  Got Muats.  Got rolled by a crap ton of Roaches.  Turns out 25+ Roaches are greater than a handful of Roaches, Zerglings, Queens and Mutas.  Good to know.

Also, no ranking but a bunch of 1v1s in his match history recently.  Is this from the unranked play?  He was Platinum in 1v1 last season.

No GL HF or anything either.  Happening more and more.

After the Replay:

My money's high.  I have plenty of larva and available supply.  What am I doing?

No idea.  Just sitting there making mistakes.  Not producing when I should be.  I don't know why.  I could be.  I should be.  If I can't make the unti I want, make drones!  Jesus I'm terrible.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 32

Autowin =/

How come every time I'm feeling good about a game, the opponent drops?

Before the Replay:

ZvP.  I was a little nervous, but figured I could get away with a 15 pool.  I got my Overlord in for a scout and though I lost him, I got good info on what was coming.  I got my Zerglings in for a scout, saw the expand.  I got my macro hatch up and was teching.  I was scouting the area around me for Proxy Pylons and Observers.  I was trying to decide to expand or poke when he dropped.

After the Replay:

He was planning a Proxy Pylon but I found the Probe and destroyed it before that 4 minute mark.  Didn't even realize!  After that he changed directions and went double Stargate before leaving the match.

Sadly, the only 2 wins I've mustered at the bottom of the bottom league were both to people who left or disconnected from the game.

+ 48 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 34

How does he have so much stuff?

I got my ass kicked.  I don't understand how he macro'd so much harder than I did.  I was constantly out of money, constantly making drones and he was just outstripping me in units.  On the score screen my average unspent minerals is lower than his and my time spent supply capped was 14 seconds compared to his 2:56.  I also created 2 less workers than he did.  WTF...

Before the Replay:

ZvZ.  I remembered my plan this time, one-base Roach.  It was a big map so I decided I could do a 16 pool.  I scouted as my pool was going down and he appeared to be on 1 base, with a gas up already and he was just putting his pool down, about a minute after mine.  I felt this gave me an opportunity to expand.

So I expanded, got my Roach Warren up and he wasn't going anywhere so I felt like I had time to get my Spire up.  Lair finished, I threw down a Spire and got my guisers going.  As my Mutas were getting ready I threw down a 3rd base and then he flew in with more Mutas than I had.  And he had a second base going and he had a crap ton of Zerglings on top of more Mutas.  Whereas I was broke and had almost no Zerglings.  GG

After the Replay:

On the graphs I show a significant drop off in my active workers around 270, like I lost a bunch?  So I'm going to be paying attention to what happens around 4-5 minutes.

At the 4 minute mark I throw down my Roach Warren and drop from 14 to 13 workers.  This is a low number, he has 17 already.  How?  He has 1 less building, I have a hatch over him.  We have the same number of Overlords.  I've created a round of Zerglings and a Queen.  But I have 3 Larva, I could have 2 workers in production with my 115 minerals.  By the 5 minute mark I get it going but he's already had a full minute of a strong advantage in mineral production.

At the 10 minute mark he has 57 supply to my 53 supply.  He's got his Spire up with 4 Mutas out.  I've got my Spire but no Mutas yet, I can't quite afford them.  I have 15 larva and nothing to spend them on.  I have 4 queens to his 3, 30 drones to his 28, 3 Zerglings to his 26.  My income is higher in minerals and lower in gas.  How has he outstripped me so much?  That 1 minute of mining advantage can't have made that difference?

I don't get it.  I've watched it a few times now.

At 11:21 our incomes are almost identical.  We each have 33 harvesters.  We're each pulling in 860 minerals.  Somehow I'm pulling in 480 gas to his 464.

On the Spending Tab I've outspent him on Economy 4250 to his 3950.  That's the 300 for my 3rd Hatch.  He's outspent me 1800 to 1600 on Tech.  That's his 3 Spore Crawlers and his Evo chamber to my Infestation Pit.  I've outspent him on Army, 3100 to 2700.  I have 3 Zerglings, 1 Roach, 8 Mutas and 4 Queens.  He has 26 Zerglings, 8 Mutas and 3 Queens.  He's lost 2 Zerglings, I've lost 2 Roaches (my 1 Zergling loss doesn't show).

Queens are 150?  2 Roaches are 150?  So if we had the same sized army, I should be ahead by 300.  I'm ahead by 400 and he has a larger army.  His standing army is 600 for the Zerlings, 800 for the Mutas and 450 for the Queens.  That's 1850.  My standing army is 100 for the Zerlings, 75 for the Roach, 800 for the Mutas and 600 for the Queens, 1575.

How is he so far ahead?  That's a standing army difference of my 3rd hatch in cost.  I guess I got too greedy.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 47

I'm so terrible

Before the Replay:

I'm assuming it was a 4-gate.  ZvP.  Somehow I scouted and missed the Pylon until it was too late.  Eventually I notice it's on my mini-map even though I'm staring at the mini map.  Because I'm terrible. =/

So anyway, he basically floods my front with units and I can't stop him.  Producing whatever I can as fast as I can and trying to engage smart but making mistakes.  Forgot my second round of Queens.  Didn't watch to make sure I wasn't supply blocked.  Didn't throw down Spines when I saw the Pylon late.  Bad decision after bad decision.  So bad at this game, when did I get so bad?

After the Replay:

Oh I forgot.  I also failed on getting my first Drone out in a timely manner.  Too busy "GL"ing my opponent.  At least this one threw a response my way.

He built the Pylon at 4 minutes.  That's good to know.  And he built it behind the gas of my 3rd, which is a little hard to get to on this map.  Also good to know.

I could have stopped this.  I scouted early, I suspected it, I looked for it.  And even when I "spotted" it late I still had time.  I just executed poorly.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 48

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

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck =/

Placement match, demoted to Bronze.

Before Replay:

He just 1 based me hard.  God.  He just massed Marines and SCREWED me.  I've never felt so terrible in my life.  I tried to get up a good defense and I just could-not-do-it.  Every time I held him off, he just had a crap ton more Marines incoming.  There was nothing I could do to stabilize and get any good offense or even harass going.

After the Replay:

He opened Supply Depot into Double Barracks.  I should have scouted the front with a Zergling...I saw he had a good number of Marines when I had my Overlord in there but I didn't realize he was going so Marine committed.  4 Barracks before the 5 minute mark.  Banelings earlier and I would have held that quicker.

He produced nothing while he attacked his Marines the first time.  He was supply capped.  I actually feel embarrassed that I lost this game.  He didn't even make an Orbital or rally his Barracks.  Neve expanded.

Okay, by the 13 minute mark he's finally got his Orbital done.  When he realized the Marine-all-in wasn't going to work?  

Lesson learned, send a Zergling to scout-the-front.  Look out for the stupid losses.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 100

Man I hate ZvZ in HotS

Before the Replay:

So he didn't know it was a ZvZ up front.  We were cross map.  I went 15 hatch, pool.  I knew it was a mistake, it's been a mistake every game I've played ZvZ.  But I did it again and it was a mistake again.

He scouted out the ZvZ, cut his production of everything and just flooded the map with Zerglings.  I lose, GG.

After the Replay:

I thought he 1 base Zerg Rushed me.  Wrong!  He just made as many Zerglings as he could off 2 base as fast as he could.  Lesson learned?  We'll see.  Next ZvZ I 1-base Roach.

+ 0 Points, Silver League Division Rank 58, Remaining Bonus Pool: ?

"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

Last Placement Match!

I've gotten my ass kicked in 3 of 4 games so far.  Let's see what the last one has in store...

And I got my ass kicked.

Before the Replay:

Protoss just went full out air agression.  I could do NOTHING to deal with it.  And I totally fucked myself with my opening because I tried a different build so worried about getting early 4-gated.

So, GG.  Bronze placed.  I guess more agressive scouting will be required of me in HotS.  And better builds.  I never had any cash in this game, my build sucked.  If I'd had more cash I probably could have won.

After the Replay:

Same as before the replay.  My build sucked, I wasn't getting any income and I just couldn't keep up with his production.

Placed!, Bronze League Division Rank 100, Remaining Bonus Pool 654

I'm terrible at HotS!

PvZ, we both went random.  He beat me in under 5 minutes.  No wait, under 9 minutes.  Just felt like 5.

Before the Replay:

I went for my typical 15 hatch, pool opening.  He scouted me and did a 4 gate.  I saw it coming and threw down a lot of Lings, had my Speed up and 4 Queens.  Still couldn't hold it.

He was Platinum.

After the Replay:

Yep, nothing I missed.  4 gate into win.

3 Placements Lost, 1 Placement Won, 1 Placement Remaining

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

Failed Bunker Rush = Lose?

It always surprises me when I come across something like this.  I face a moderately cheesy rush from a player who loses and then GG's out.  6-Pool, Cannon Rush, Bunker Rush...it's odd.  And they're almost always in a higher division than me.

Does this rush always work?  Were they just trying it on a lark?  Is this just their bad matchup?  Sometimes you can tell from his match history, and sometimes you can't.

Before the Replay:

ZvT on a big map, so I opened 15 hatch, pool, extractor to get my economy up early.  I got a few Lings out early and caught his scout SCV trying to bunk the base of my expansion ramp, so I put an end to that quickly but his Marines at the tower killed my starter Lings.

No big deal, I threw down a spine crawler, got a few more Lings and Queens, started my Baneling tech and went back to Droning.

Not long after I'm moving my creep tumors out and he comes rushing in with most of his SCVs and a handful of Marines.  It doesn't work and I hold off the push, he GG's out.

#boggle

After the Replay:

So he goes for a quick 2 Rax followed by 2 more.  He gets an early gas geyser but doesn't use it for a while until he eventually puts an SCV in it.  He never uses the gas.  Then he sends 13 Marines with 10 of his 20 SCVs into my base.

End of the game...fascinating.  At least I held it off I guess?

+ 36 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 101

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=273251

RvR

I've had quite a few Random v Random games tonight.  Didn't use to be so many, I wonder if more people are playing Random these days or if it's just a fluke tonight?

ZvP on Tal'darim.  He didn't expand very fast and forgot to build Warpgates.  It looked like he knew what the Protoss could do, but just wasn't that good at executing it.  Felt familiar, really =)  So I took advantage, just kept harassing him with Zerglings and Mutalisks and just kept making Drones.  He did a good job of defending but couldn't keep it up.  Eventually he'd lost most of his probes and had to GG out.

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 7

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272301

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.

Roaches + Infestors beats Roaches every time

I don't know why, but whenever I use Infestors and fungal growth it never seems to impede my opponents armies much.  But when my opponent uses it on me, it always seems to totally hose me.

Perspective?  Or am I doing it wrong?

Either way, ZvZ loss.  He tried to rush me with Zerglings, I defended and macro'd up and tried to push when I wasn't sure if I had an advantage   I sorta did, but then I tried to push too hard again twice and eventually it came back to bite me.

- 6 Points, Silver League Division Rank 19, Remaining Bonus Pool 45

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272296

Changed replay sites again.  Hopefully this one will stick around for a while...

"gg, I'm new to terran"

I did "okay" but not great here.  I threw away my units a few times, got inpatient and tried to push in on him.

He did a good job of defending my Mutalisk harass.  I had him pinned back in his base while I expanded and teched, so that was good.  Just got inpatient, didn't upgrade or tech fast enough IMO and threw away my army making stupid mistakes a few times.

Still, got the win.  Despite his excuse at the GG =)

+ 28 Points, Silver League Division Rank 18, Remaining Bonus Pool 8

http://drop.sc/257938

Rinse, Repeat

Continuing with the goal from yesterday.  Keep producing, don't get supply blocked, keep my money low.

...

Loss.  I didn't expand.  I didn't built more hatcheries.  I didn't keep my income low once things started happening.  I didn't contain my opponent or harass hard enough.  I let him build up his mech and simply roll me while I kept getting supply blocked.

- 9 Points, Silver League Division Rank 29, Remaining Bonus Pool 21

http://drop.sc/254590

Much better game...

Much better this time around.  Built my units, kept my upgrades going, injected my larva and just produced a lot of units while keeping him pinned in his base.

Not much more to say really, quite a thorough win.  I couldn't force my way into his base, but I didn't have to.  Just kept expanding and kept him inside his base.

+ 30 Points, Silver League Division Rank 26, Remaining Bonus Pool 14

http://drop.sc/254253

Second match...

Let's see if I can do better.

...

Nope.  ZvP and I got owned hard again.

He built a crap load more units than I did and kept me on the defense.  Zealots, Stalkers, Void Rays.  I couldn't build and upgrade fast enough to deal with his overwhelming units and eventually he just *rolled* over me.

It's so frustrating to feel so bad at the game now.

- 0 points, Silver League Division Rank 45, Remaining Bonus Pool 40

http://drop.sc/253882