EPTMy TvZ is easily 2-3 ranks lower level on iccup than my other two matchups. People have told me this is literally impossible and I have to be exaggerating, I'm not. C+ TvP's are nearly auto wins for me and C+ TvZ's are nearly auto losses its that bad.
I can play TvP and TvT games very solidly at B (pushing B+ at times even) levels. I have a few very very solid and good timing builds TvP and everything about that matchup flows so smoothly for me. TvT is a very rock paper scissors type matchup and definitely is more positional/decision based, all things that are very good for my style of play which is a pretty defensive macro based style.
During laddering for TSL I got to B- with stats around 45-10 and people were actually asking me if I
was going to try and make a run to qualify.... Sadly this is where the story takes the sad turn, at B-
I find (maybe it's bad luck?) way way more zerg users. I have a ridiculously hard time competing vs C
level zergs let alone B- so I get raped very sadly when I try to play a standard game vs zerg.
I continued on laddering (playing standard 80-90% of my games) but I'm now 50% ratio at C+ which honestly is quite horrible by my standards.
Why is this? Let's try to run through some stuff starting with a quick history on my background which may hold some answers...
I grew up playing on useast (from like 2004-2008, some of you may know this <3 ) where nobody played zerg (and if they did they wouldn't go mutas cuz no lan lat) so I became halfway good against lurker openings. And if they did go mutas their macro and overall mechanics were so bad I would lose a shitload of mnm but still be like 60 supply ahead and win the game easily.
These days it's all about 2 and 3 hatch muta ZvT and honestly my mnm micro vs mutas is a joke. I simply do not know how to effectively attack mutas without getting my forced raped. I am told to rally rax into main so troops don't scatter around and get raped but I find if I camp in my main a shitload of lings+muta attack at front door at nat while my forces are terribly out of place.
At times my mnm micro seems ok but I think it's more just the zerg having really bad muta micro.
Basically the point of this is my TvZ eventually evolved into where it is now which must be like watching a horrible comedy show for people who obs my regular TvZ. I still have the macro and run an average of 300apm/200eapm in the matchup but that's about all I can do. I have enough game understanding and BO knowledge that it sometimes carries me through TvZ but overall my foundation is really weak.
In my early days I never had a gosu zerg practice partner, I've had brief people but nobody who
honestly helped me in the matchup hardcore like some other people did for me in the other matchups. I also never got good practice with bio, mnm troops against good mutas.
Let's run though what sucks hardcore on a little more detailed level:
1. Building Placement. Building placement in TvZ is all about preventing the mutas. Turrets to
cover main minerals, nat minerals and your ramp/choke. I find I have very bad building placement with
nearly everything. turrets behind my mineral lines pretty much begs for ling snipes. Bunkers out of
position at nat, mnm running through buildings getting single filed and raped... Depots being thrown up all over the base messing up future rax and other buildings.
2. Overall mnm micro vs mutas. It's beyond sad. I try to group and hit and run but I accidentally
move command shit so much or let things run single file. I get raped so hard at the uphill ramp near
your natural on HBR it isn't even funny. Kawaiirice has been helping me a bit TvZ recently and
mentioned something about attacking in a way that it glitches the muta attack range or something, maybe looking into that shit more would be helpful... I've been really trying to get a deeper understanding of TvZ such as what the fuck to do when you scan and see den/spire at same time. Zomfg I hate that shit.
3. Getting a good build (bio based). Another problem I allowed to happen with my TvZ was never finding a good build that I could rely on. Sure I started taking games off high level players with mech builds and other cheesy 2 (and recently 4port) builds. but those are so easily countered when the zerg knows whats coming and if I play more than 2 or 3 games against the same opponent I found myself getting raped so ridiculously hard it was sad. Recently I'm "trying" to 1rax fe -> 4 rax and 1rax fe-> 3tank+vessel timing but my timing gets so horribly screwed by multiple factors. Like forgetting when to make natural gas and forgetting to research basic basic things like marine range upgrade.
4. Not missing depots. In TvP I had a huge problem at 52 supply right after my expo had been
running for a bit I would always get stuck hardcore at 52. I fixed this by incorporating a depot at my
natural to prevent dt and turret pickoff and/or bulldog attacks. Now this comes naturally and I find I'm not getting stuck at 52 anymore. But TvZ I miss depots at multiple times which isn't as easily fixed. Sometimes even at 36 which is stupid as shit. I miss depots most of the time when I am going to
make turrets. Right before turret timing I try to save around 300 minerals for the 6-7 turrets I
usually make but when I build turrets and then go back to macro I'm always supply stuck.
All of this needs to be improved if my TvZ is to get any better. I'll continue trying to improve but
it's so frustrating right now and there are such big temptations to just go back to a cheesy/allin
style but I really want to fundamentally fix my TvZ... From the bottom up which sadly is going to take a ton of work.
Starcraft in some ways reminds me of golf, you can never ever think of everything while you swing a club (keep your head down, follow through the ball, don't overswing, feet parallel to the target, swinging outside in for a draw, correct grip, correct body movement through the ball, more weight towards your left foot) you instead focus on one aspect at a time until everything becomes subconscious and it just happens when you do it.
Starcraft is alot about this especially with these kinds of problems I am having. What I will do moving forward is incorporate this type of thinking in my TvZ. I will go into each game focusing on ONE aspect that is weak such as trying to not miss a single depots throughout the game and primarily focusing on that only especially when I go to make anti muta turrets. Lots of small things to fix here but I know I have the foundation if I can fix these small things I can hopefully start doing halfway ok at TvZ above C+ levels.
Take care TL hopefully I can turn this sad sad story into a success story sometime in the future!
p.s thanks kawaiirice, freaky, toxic, octzerg and whoever else has given me advice/practice games in the past couple weeks <3 u all.
get better later.
My TvP is D+/C-, TvT is a solid D+ and TvZ is like.. 1200 points O.o
