EPTI whined a lot about how star2 sucks compared to broodwar, but now I'm pretty okay with playing a bad game. I'm not quite sure if that's because I've actually started to enjoy it more or if I just don't want all the time I've invested to be (even more) pointless.
Overall record: 240-202, rating 2653. Bonus pool, zero. I thought I'd never see the day that I'd have less than a triple digit bonus pool.
December record: 61-64
TvT 18-26
TvP 21-18
TvZ 22-20
November record: 46-49
TvT 9-11
TvP 20-9
TvZ 17-29
Overall since November: 107-113
TvT 27-37
TvP 41-27
TvZ 39-49
November was an upsetting month for TvZ. Pretty much nothing I did worked. I tried a ton of builds; fast stim off 1 rax into expo with 3 rax 2 reactors, 1rax FE into mass viking, gas before rax FE, etc etc. On the other hand, TvP was 1rax FE or 1-1-2 hellion drop, which worked fine.
December was when my TvZ started to come together. I stuck to two builds: 2rax CC and banshee expand with 5 marine 1 hellion push. I finally felt like I could reach midgame and lategame without dying horribly to ridiculous numbers of mutaling baneling.
TvT is meh. I tried 2rax CC to fake an allin, expand, and play tank/viking off of it. However, I found it pretty frustrating after dying to three thor drops in a row. So I started thor dropping myself. I think half of my thor drop games ends up with his igniter hellions being dropped in my base at the same time I'm elevatoring my thor/scvs/marines into his base.
TvP is weird. I lost about 10 games in a row to really simple 1 base all pushes. Then I switched to the polt timing push and found it a lot more versatile in defending allins and punishing FEs. Mostly I felt like if I went 1rax FE, it was difficult to punish P for teching straight to HT off his own 1gate FE without going massively all-in with 5+ rax, which would also leave me vulnerable to colossi play. I also feel like my economy isn't that bad for expanding at 60ish food, especially because star2's improved mining AI means that it takes much longer for an expansion to kick in.
Most distressingly, my APM has been dropping steadily. I used to average about 200-220 for a 15+ minute game, but now I'm lucky if I break 160 for a 10 minute game. I'm not sure if this is physical fatigue, mental block, whatever.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pmYpJ.jpg)
Master's league! It's supposed to 5% of all active diamond that get into master's league. I'm not really clear whether it's based on MMR or unweighted points. There are 53k diamond players on NA, so 5% of that is 2683 players. Though this doesn't take into account whether or not players are "active." With a rating of 2653, sc2ranks tells me I sit around ranked 850ish on NA. However, I haven't got a goddamn clue what tier my division is, so my true rating could actually be like 2300. I've tried a ton of times to vaguely guess at it based on my opponent's rating and their division, and my best guess is that my division is either +63 or +126. That would mean I've a pretty decent chance to make masters league. It's kind of depressing to think that master's league is still pretty much equal to iccup D to C ranks, with grandmaster's making up B to B+/A- on NA.
Notable people I've run into on ladder (if you guys want replays I'll put them up but they're not exactly the greatest games)
featured tl streamer decemvre, TvZ on LT. I felt like I had a pretty decent chance this game. I opened up banshee expo, versus his speedling expo, but I managed to fuck up my 5 marine 1 hellion push pretty badly, without damaging his queen or killing any lings. I could have dealt with his baneling/roach bust a lot better if I had a) sieged my tank on the high ground or futher back and b) remembered to actually make tanks, so that I'd have 2 or 3 instead of 1 when he came knocking on my door. I actually didn't feel too behind after he busted my nat, though. The replay says we had about equal supply after that, and I managed to kill his 6 oclock third with my banshee. I didn't scout the 12 oclock until too late, and threw away about 14 marines that might have made the difference in the battle at his 12 stupidly. If decemvre happens to read this, GGs and got any advice for anything I could have done better that game? ^^ Also I felt so pressured because my friend was watching on his stream and he'd beaten decemvre PvZ on the EU server TT______TT
esl female cup winner gtNavi, TvZ on scrap station. I have to admit, my first thought on finding out Navi had won the ESL female cup was "she won a tournament playing like that?" I opened banshee expo. My first push did a lot of damage; I think I killed around 10 lings in the middle, and then got a bunch of lings and drones in her natural. My follow up banshee killed the queen in her main, and then after my expansion I pushed with about 3 hellions, 20 marines and a medivac and ended the game. However, the female population in competitive games is pretty low, and she obviously has a lot of room to improve, so it's pretty cool she can play SC2 at a mid diamond level.
vVvTreva TvT on LT. Actually I'm not too sure how notable Treva is but I know vVv is a pretty decent team haha. I tried to thor drop, got owned, I blow cock at TvT.
If you've made it this far through this rambling post, nice. I hope to be able to continue my series of shitty blog posts with each new sc2 milestone(?) I make.
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