EPTI've been laddering a lot lately, so let's get the statistics down and then discuss the dramatic flashes of insight I've been having in Silver league.
Day: Wednesday, November 17th
Wins/Total: 3/8 [1 win due to disconnect before start screen]
Starting Rank: 23
Ending Rank: 23
Highest Rank: 23
Lowest Rank: 24
Note: Second day laddering in silver league
Day: Thursday, November 18th
Wins/Total: 7/10
Starting Rank: 23
Ending Rank: 20
Highest Rank: 20
Lowest Rank: 23
Notes: First day of intensive coaching
Day: Friday, November 19th
Wins/Total: 9/17
Starting Rank: 20
Ending Rank: 15
Highest Rank: 15
Lowest rank: 20
Notes: One win due to an early game disconnect by opponent
[Yesterday (Saturday) was spent laddering, but it was all 2v2s with Temporal, and I'm not keeping track of those stats]
Wins/Total matchups (as Terran) vs.:
Zerg: 8/10
Protoss: 6/14
Terran: 3/9
Notes: These stats don't include the 2 disconnects
Observations
- I am basically going 3 rax every game. It's been working okay so far, especially against Zerg, but I think I'm getting to the point where I'll need to learn some race-specific builds and/or get much better at micro (bio ball against banelings, for example).
- TvZ is clearly my best matchup. However, I think this is more because at this skill level zerg players don't really know how to harass or specifically counter 3 rax. I do tend to be more aggressive vs. zerg about denying expansions, though, which has helped.
The Coaching Story
I was down in the dumps Thursday night because I'd lost 7 out of my last 10 games (2 games that night, 5 the night before). My friend Kaiz had been watching my replays and giving me tips, but it just didn't seem like it was helping as much as it should've. Kaiz wasn't around right then for me to gripe to, so instead I messaged Beast, a 1700 diamond player I'd met through obsing games where he and Kaiz battled it out. He told me I just needed to focus on not queuing up units, not getting supply blocked, and continuously making SCVs. But then he reconsidered and asked if I used skype.
Admittedly, I was a little bit nervous. It's a lot easier for me to handle criticism, bm, etc. from someone I don't know via the sterility of text. The voice is a powerful instrument of emotional communication, and in a one-on-one situation it's much more difficult to react with a cool head. But I wanted to get better, faster, and I knew Kaiz well enough to trust that any friend of his would be a friend of mine.
When we started talking on skype, I was in a ladder game against a protoss on Scrap Station. I found myself narrating what I was doing in the game to Beast, who listened patiently.
"Ok, building a tech lab ... third barracks almost done ... dammit forgot to build an SCV ... researching stim ... ugh supply blocked! ... stim's done but not +1 weapons - maybe I should push out ..."
"No, your window for that passed already. You should wait until +1 is done," he said calmly.
The part of me that wasn't worrying about getting supply blocked and not queuing units was astonished. How did he know what was going on? Then I realized it was probably a stupid question for a 1700 diamond.
I ended up losing that game and felt miserable, but Beast didn't dwell on it. By then Kaiz was on, and Beast started a game to pit me against him. My misery intensified - there was no way I could win against Kaiz, and I hated TvT.
After I lost, Beast was kind but firm. "I knew I was gonna lose," I said quietly.
"Well, there's your first mistake."
Next he had me play against Hard and Very Hard AI while he ran me through a slightly different 3 rax opening: 10 depot, 12 barracks, 13 gas, 15 orbital. At one point I slipped up and built my first rax at 11, per my past build.
"No! We're starting over." He left the game, and I sheepishly left as well.
He ran me through a more structured way of building units. "Hit 5s, then 3aadd. That's a round. Build a depot. Now MULE. Do another round. Don't forget to keep doing rounds while you're attacking." It was a much saner way of creating a functioning military-industrial economy than the way I'd been doing it before. It made so much sense. It was like an epiphany.
After one unfortunate game where the AI blindly countered my 3 rax with a 3 rax of its own, I was winning handily. I marveled at the newfound efficiency of my play and delighted in the hordes of units I found at my base after my first wave of attackers had all died.
Finally, Beast and I played a 2v2 where I died about 3/4 of the way through and he mopped up to win. He told me to watch the replay from his perspective. I did, and the constant lurching between units, buildings, and my base almost made me seasick. He was everywhere all the time! I was blown away.
Beast had to leave for work, and so with newfound confidence I ventured out to ladder again. I sent my first win - against zerg on Lost Temple - to Kaiz for analysis. "You've definitely gotten better," he said. "I hate to say this, but that win was as much about the zerg making stupid mistakes as you playing better." Undaunted, I sent him my next two wins.
"Wow, those were really good games."
I ended the night on a 7-game win streak, finishing with a triumphant win against protoss on Blistering Sands. The replay is below.
Miser vs Peanut on Blistering Sands
On Friday I woke up unexpectedly at 7am because Sprint was calling me to remind me to pay my phone bill. Unable to go back to sleep, I signed on to battlenet and found Kaiz awake, which was highly unusual (he often doesn't get out of bed until the afternoon).
"Why are you up?" I asked.
"I was watching a bunch of replays last night, trying to calculate new build orders, and then I watched all of your replays, and now the sun's out."
I told him about Beast putting me through my paces the night before, and how he made me spam APM at the beginning of the game to warm up - something that Kaiz had discouraged before.
"Yeah, it doesn't do anything for me. [Beast] and I were talking about your APM last night. Next, I want you to practice stutter-stepping with your marines and marauders - you clearly have the capability to do it, and it makes your units last that much longer."
I felt blessed. Two very intelligent, skilled, and dedicated StarCraft players were collaborating to help me become a better player. It's a new adventure I'm very excited about pursuing.
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For those who made it this far, check out the new VODs that David aka X has uploaded of a recent game of mine (note that this was pre-coaching magic).
Shoutout to Temporal for being very graceful about the fact that I'm currently better than he is at StarCraft. Shoutout to Kaiz and Beast, who are amazing coaches. And also thanks to VT.Awesome, who gave me a chance to demonstrate my newly-honed skills in a game against her where she was offracing as zerg. She won, but it was pretty close.
EDIT: A funny picture (multiple exchanges edited in for conciseness).
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/N098h.jpg)
