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

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

I think I've been clear that PvP is my worse matchup...

...and my least favorite.

I'm so f-ing bad at this game.

Before the Replay:

I'm not sure what he did different.  I'll have to look.  Felt like a 4-Gate with a Mothership core though.  I guess I was thinking this was HotS, surely the 4-Gate is gone?  Right?  Wrong.  Fuck.

After the Replay:

Yeah, 4-gate.  Okay...well lesson learned.  Prepare for the 4-Gate and get my Mothership Core up earlier with more Sentries.

I don't have time for another game tonight, I have work early in the morning.  So last night I went 0-2, tonight I went 1-2 with the only "win" being a default win because he d/c'd.  I probably would have won, but I didn't get to earn it or experience it.  Bunch of crap.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 38

PvP vs Plat...

Yeah, so no Silver Leaguers out tonight.  Probably time to just call it a night here.

Before the Replay:

Random vs Random which, of course, turned into Protoss vs Protoss.  Man I'm terrible at this game =)

He scouted me pretty thoroughly and just out built me.  Plain and simple.  He built more than me faster than me and hit me right before my upgrades came through.  Another minute and I probably would have held my own pretty well.  Or maybe if I'd done less upgrades and gotten more Stalkers.  Either way, GG.

After the Replay:

Oh.  He actually expanded.  So he was on 2 bases.  Even better.....I really got outplayed.  This is an interesting map, I hadn't played it before.  Well my first game of the night where the Zerg quit at 2 minutes was on this map, but that hardly counts.

+ 0 Points, Silver League Division Rank 49, Remaining Bonus Pool 407

"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

Next HotS season...

Time for my placement match.

Ass kicked.  Mine that is.

Before the Replay:

I'm terrible at PvP.  Always have been, probably always will be.  Not exactly the positive attitude I need.

I had a good first early attack, but then I didn't retreat my units, instead I let them die.

I played too passively, didn't spend my money well, didn't use map awareness the way I meant to.  Overall I played sloppy and he took advantage to build a huge death army of Collosi.

He was ranked Gold.

After the Replay:

I did have an army advantage when I rolled out and took out his third.  I think that was a good move.  I should have had more Gateways up and a forward Pylon to reinforce.

Of course when I lost my whole army to his there I had a 20 food supply deficit to him.

I essentially never caught up after that.  Couldn't watch for his drops, couldn't spend my money, couldn't think straight.

- 0 Points, Bronze League Division Rank 23, Remaining Bonus Pool 42

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

BWAR@#!$@#!(*&

That's all I have to say about that.

Before the Replay:

WTF.  So many stalkers?  I just got my ass handed to me in like 8 minutes.  It felt like I could do *nothing* about it.  I couldn't macro because he kept me so busy attacking my front base, I couldn't stop paying attention to my units without * guarantying* I'd lose all of them.  And everytime...everytime what?  Lost my train of thought.

After the Replay:

Nothing of value here either.  WTF am I getting so much PvP recently?  Or why does it feel that way?

I don't know what to do in this scenario.  I mean, I know I need to macro better but I can't seem to do it?  And I don't understand why.  Do I not understand the units?  The tech structure?  Can I not wrap my head around what Pylons I need when?  I don't understand the barrier.

If I felt like I could say "okay, this.  Work on this!" I'd feel better but now I don't see anything that I can do.  Any one thing.  Pissing me off because I know there's something, there's thousands of somethings, I just can't identify it.

- 12 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 101

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=273254

More PvP

That sucked.

Before Replay:

I should have won that game.  I supply blocked myself early, wasted my money, didn't build my Gateways fast enough, all the normal "I'm terrible at Protoss" stuff that I usually do.

He did a tight Colossus ball which I knew was coming and I just wasn't ready for it fast enough.  My money got high and I wasn't spending it properly.  I don't know why Protoss is so hard for me to play?

After Replay:

Yep.  I should have had such the advantage.  I was ahead before he attacked, I was ahead after I defended and then he pulls *way* ahead while my money just climbs quietly and stupidly.  Enough said.

- 10 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 101

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=273252

I'm tired of playing Protoss now

5 games in a row, Random = Protoss.

Before the Replay:

Man, I don't know what happened.  Okay that's not totally true.  I threw away my army trying to be too agressive on his doorstep.  This whole thing is built around my macroing and building a lot.  I didn't have enough gateways, I didn't take a 4th early enough and I threw away my army in a stupid attack.

PvP, by the way.  I don't think I lose more games in any matchup...

After the Replay:

Watching through, he's got a solid build and a plan.  Lots of strong Robo units and a good mix of others.  But my macro is better, faster on the expands, more probes and a higher unit count.  Food's constantly pulling away from his too...slow but steady.

I moved my army out when I spotted his 3rd going up.  He sees the army moving out and cancels the Nexus.  I should have considered that a win, and to an extent I did.  But when I see the Nexus going back up I decide to advance again.  Stupid.

And at that point it's GG.

- 10 Points, Silver League Division Rank 13, Remaining Bonus Pool 81

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272934

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

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

Proxied!

TvP.  I quickly scanned his base to check for cheese and saw no buildings   No pylons, nothing but his Nexus, Assimilators and Probes.

So I assumed he was building near me.  I sent a marine to scout it out a bit, not wanting to over react, he did and didn't find anything.  I continued with my build to get some banshees up and a decent ground army.

Soon I spotted a pylon.  Okay, so maybe he just did a single pylon proxy?  I went to investigate and my Marine found a large group of Stalkers.

Game was soon over and his Stalkers charged my ramp and could do nothing about it.

Lesson learned.  I'm going to stick with a modified version of my TvT opening for TvP.  Get a lot of units up, focus on core upgrades, be prepared.

- 12 Points, Silver League Division Rank 16, Remaining Bonus Pool 20

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272300

Stalkers > Void Rays

Okay maybe not.  But with a greater economy and better build mechanics (and more upgrades!) I pulled it off.

We were both Random =)

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Rank 17, Remaining Bonus Pool 38

http://sc2rep.com/replays/test_1349228866/20980

Not sure about this URL?  It may need to change...

I don't like it when they don't talk..

At the start of every game I throw out a good luck.  Just seems polite.  Usually I'll get a gl hf or something in response.  But sometimes I get nothing, no response at all.

It bothers me less when I roll the guy.

TvP.  We scouted each other in the first 6-7 minutes.  I scanned and saw he'd expanded without much in the way of units, so I pushed the front a bit while I threw down my own expansion.  I didn't pull out as soon as I should have, but I think I still came out a little ahead.

Then I did a drop, two full Medivacs on his main's Probe line.  His observer was sitting right where my Medivacs loaded and took off, but he must have not been watching his mini map because, watching the replay, he had no idea.

That was pretty much the end.  He was sitting on 3k minerals, but not spending them, and I finished him off.

+ 23 Points, Silver League Division Rank 12, Remaining Bonus Pool 0

http://drop.sc/258009

God I hate PvP

Tal'darim PvP.  So I went Forge first Expand.  That's what you're supposed to do, right?

No.  No he kicked my ass quickly.

Put a big ass army in the front of my base and had no trouble picking me off.  Somehow killed all my probes in the back with Zealots he got back there and I never saw any warnings or information about it.  No notice at all I was so busy trying to figure out how to use this stupid race against this stupid race.

Okay, just frustrated.  I can't get my head around anything to do in this matchup.  It feels like every decision I make is the wrong decision.

- 6 Points, Silver League Rank 18, Remaining Bonus Pool 8

http://drop.sc/257979

PvP =(

Random / Random.  Turned out it was PvP and I scouted the wrong direction.  He immediately took his second, walled it off with 4 warpgates and just expanded more aggressively.

I have a hard time justifying agressive expansion because I can keep my money low as Protoss so easily by just building from what I have.  I don't often recognize when it's time to build another base easily.

Also I'm terrible about not getting supply blocked as Protoss.  Played a few games against the computer yesterday as Protoss, constantly supply blocked all game long.  This one was no different.

- 7 Points, Silver League Division Rank 26, Remaining Bonus Pool 29

http://drop.sc/257538

PvP..Win?

We were both Random and both got Protoss, cross position on Tal'darim.

I did a good job of not getting supply blocked.  It happened a few times but they were all relatively brief.

Before I watched the replay, I thought I won because he just had less of an idea of what to do than I did in this scenario.  And certainly there was a bit of that.  But even more was that once he started building buildings and taking expansions...he stopped making probes.

At the 13 minute mark he was sending out some Warp Prisms with DTs, I was about to send out some Void Rays and we were both taking our Third bases.  I had 60 probes to his 40.

He also stopped producing anything when he was busy.  So I was attacking his main and he was counter attacking with DTs at my Second base.  I continued putting up buildings and producing units and he did almost nothing.

At the 20 minute point I was at 4 bases to 2 after that 1 Void Ray attack and his DT counter.  I had 75 probes to his 37 while he went Carrier / Phoenix to counter my Void Rays while I tech switched to Archons.

So looking at the mechanics that really helped me edge him out, I really feel like I earned that win.

+ 29 Points, Silver League Division Rank 17, Remaining Bonus Pool 0

http://drop.sc/256253

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