EPTAfter a couple days of fighting a pretty bad post-BlizzCon cold, last night I felt well enough to start playing StarCraft again.
Day: Tuesday, Oct 26th
Number of Ladder Games: 12
Starting Rank: 64 (I have no idea how this happened, considering I ended last week at 27)
Ending Rank: 41
Highest Rank: 41
Lowest Rank: 69
Mostly during this session I focused on learning the counters to specific builds and what to look for during scouting. I am scouting every game now (after building the first supply depot), and since most of my opponents were Terran and Protoss, I'm getting a pretty good handle on what different T and P openings mean in terms of countering.
I also came to the game with a better overall map sense, since I remembered various BlizzCon matches on these very same maps and the different ways the players handled their layouts. I tried to study the map layout every game at the loading screen to plan a scouting strategy, so much so that I sometimes forgot to check which race my opponent was. Well, at least at this stage the build order I've got is versatile enough to counter almost anything.
Highlights:
- One opponent made tons and tons of Thors on Scrap Station, and there was very little I could do about it. Moral of the story: scout/scan more to determine specific counters.
- One opponent made tons and tons of stalkers off of what turned out to be like 7 gates. I had a better army composition but didn't win. Moral: make more production facilities.
- One opponent built a rax and bunker in my base on I think Metalopolis (or some map where your base is large). I didn't scout it in time. Moral: always scout around your base.
- One opponent probe rushed me. I fended him off with 5 SCVs while the rest kept mining. He eventually left the game. Moral: keeping your cool and maintaining your economy while getting rushed is really worthwhile.
- One opponent made mass banelings, and my units and structures kept getting steamrolled. Moral: look for baneling nest and make lots of marauders and tanks.
Next Steps:
- Play more ladder games
- Watch TLO and SelecT matches (now that I've actually met them!)
- Make sure to prep for my job interview (this one I actually have to prepare for -_-)
I'd like to introduce you all (if you don't know him already) to commentator X
I think this game is the benchmark for measuring my SC2 knowledge and capabilities for this project, because I was a complete noob. I am a little less of a noob now, thankfully, and I hope this trend continues over the course of this project.
Things I did not know at the start of this match:
- You need a depot before rax
- One of the ramps at your base in Jungle Basin goes to your nat
- Banshees are not anti-air units (unlike Wraiths)
- and others
Anyway, I was a noob, but X192's casting makes me sound pretty pro, which is of course the mark of a good commentator. Thanks very much to him for casting my games - I've never had any of my (serious) SC games casted before, so this is really cool for me! He also was basically on the money with the intro, which is pretty impressive because I don't think that many SC people know about the smash stuff or the Ilgan Sports article.
Shoutout to Temporal!
