EPTYesterday was a very productive day of StarCraft II training. I mostly spent the time playing ladder games and then reviewing a few of the replays.
Day: Wednesday, Oct 27th
Number of Ladder Games: 15
Starting Rank: 41
Ending Rank: 9
Highest Rank: 9
Lowest Rank: 41
Wins/total matchups (as Terran) vs.:
Zerg: 7/8
Protoss: 1/2
Terran: 2/5 (including one random)
Random: 1 (T)
This session was all about stamina and staying cool under pressure. I lost a 75 min game against a Terran (base race), which made me want to curl up in a corner and cry, and won a 45 min game against a Zerg (Nydus Worms galore). In many other games I was harassed by drops in my main and expansions and had to figure out whether my onsite defenses were sufficient (taking into account collateral damage to my economy/production facilities) or, if not, how many military units I could minimally send to kill the harassers.
I want to work on scouting (i.e. good micro during scouting) better while still making sure my early build order is solid. I've started being less afraid to throw down a few scans here and there of my enemy's base and sacrificing energy for MULEs (up until now I've been focusing on MULEs almost exclusively, save for revealing cloaked units). I also want to see if I can better integrate Ravens and possibly Ghosts/nukes into my mid/late game. In the TvT game from hell, I tried setting off a nuke at my enemy's expansion only to have the Ghost killed because it was firing at the command center it was aiming the nuke at. Next time I will remember to use the hold function.
Highlights:
- I got into a couple late-game situations where I realized I had way too many resources and not enough production facilities to spend them on. Moral: when mineral count starts getting high mid-game, BUILD MORE STRUCTURES IMMEDIATELY.
- There were a few games where I was really really glad I'd built an extra command center in my base to float somewhere because my opponent killed off an expo orbital or planetary with lightning speed. Moral (addendum to previous moral): always have an extra command center handy once you can spare the minerals.
- In a couple games where I was playing at close positions on a map, sensor towers helped me figure out where to drop units in an opponent's main because they showed me spots where there was no building activity. Moral: always build a sensor tower at the edge of your base, especially in close positions.
- Had a few games where cloaked Banshee harass on drones seemed to give me the economic advantage against Zerg. Moral: if the Zerg is investing heavily in ground units or expanding early, go for the Banshee and have it out even before cloak research finishes.
Next Steps:
- My job interview has been postponed to Tuesday, which means more ladder games!
- Get to Silver!!!!
- Possible interview (to be posted on TL) with a well known SC personality ...
Shoutout to Temporal!
