EPT- coolHite - was Gold, now Platinum - 12/5/2010
- VanderLuust - was Gold, now Platinum - 12/5/2010
- Codetta - was Bronze, now Bronze - 12/14/2010
- BabyToss - was Bronze, now Bronze - 12/15/2010
- Twiz - was Silver, now Silver - 12/30/2011
- SicKShoT was Bronze, now Silver - 12/30/2011
VanderLuust Promoted to Platinum
Congratulations to VanderLuust, who has been promoted to Platinum! VanderLuust has been working hard on his macro and probe production and it has been paying off. He's been getting much better and no longer finds himself at a disadvantage in the late game from lack of economy. Nice job VanderLuust!
New Students
I have two new students, Twiz and SicKShoT. Here are my initial impressions.
SicKShoT
I had a chance to start working with SicKShoT, a Bronze Zerg player, over the holidays when some of my other students weren't around much.
The Bad:
SicKShot's expansion comes very late and he needs to expand more in general. Sometimes he only puts 2 drones on gas. He often engages in battles that are clear losses, and doesn't run away when he is losing battles or engaging in terrible positions. He often neglects his mutas and lets them get shredded by anti-air. He is a little hyper aggressive sometimes, and needs to learn to contain and take the map when his opponent is playing defensively. His Muta-Ling control is a little confused as he tends to target stalkers with Muta and zealots with Lings. He needs to learn to harass properly, hit and run style, with Mutas. He doesn't spend his queen's energy consistently, probably because of poor mechanics. He often neglects getting much needed gas when expanding.
The Good:
Watching SicKShoT play from his 1st person view is interesting. For a bronze player he seems remarkably clear headed and quick. Most Bronze players look like they are fighting through quicksand, physically and mentally, as they play SC2. He is aware of the mini-map almost all the time, and catches things that most gold players don't, like scouts and drops, random isolated units, overlords, etc. Despite sometimes targeting the wrong units, his unit control seems very good for a Bronze player as well. His units do what he wants them too, even if he isn't sometimes sure how to micro them. His scouting is better than most at his level, probably because of his minimap awareness. He tends to put overlords in good places, take watchtowers, and scout with lings occasionally. His macro is generally pretty solid too.
The first thing to work on with SicKShoT is his muta control and harass, since I can see that he is losing a lot of games he would otherwise win handily if not for this.
Update: Sickshot easily picked up the ideas I showed him for his unit control, and has been steamrolling. He's now been promoted to Silver! Way to go SicKShoT!
Twiz:
Twiz is an interesting player. He has a lot of potential, and he takes instruction really well. He's a quick learner.
The Bad: Twiz might have the worst macro I've ever seen (sorry man). He regularly builds up several thousand minerals in just the first few minutes of the game. His economy is pretty strong, mineral wise, but he isn't getting enough gas or spending anything. A lot of this has to do with his poor queen management. His queens are not hotkeyed at all. He takes way too long to tech, and he doesn't scout. Like, at all. Luckily he is aggressive enough that he sometimes gets information through attacking alone. Twiz often leaves games way too early. Several of his replays show him GGing out after a couple of failed attacks, when the opponent has never even approached his base, and with several thousand minerals and gas in the bank. This is inexplicable to me.
The Good: Twiz has pretty good unit control for a Bronze player. He often wins battles because he target fires or just makes sure all his units are in range. His openings are pretty solid, and he has a basic understanding of the matchups. He watches Day[9], which is good. =)
The first thing I worked on with Twiz was queen management. I taught him to hotkey his queens, and cycle through them regularly to keep larva producing. He picked that up pretty quickly, and then we started working on macroing a little better, specifically drone and unit production. Not when to produce drones, but specifically just being able to produce drones at several bases using solid mechanics. His macro is already looking a lot better and he went on a bit of a win streak afterwards. The next thing we need to work on is responding to a defensive foe by containing and taking the map, rather than being hyper aggressive. We worked on that a little bit already, but there's more for him to learn.
BabyToss
I've been working with BabyToss pretty often lately. Her game has come a long way. Watching her play, you would not guess she was a bronze player at all. Sometimes her macro pumps out armies that are down right frightening, and she rolls people. I think I need to work with her on being more aggressive. She also needs to ladder more. I don't think she can really improve and make new knowledge stick without playing more ladder games.
coolHite
I haven't given coolHite a lesson in a while, but I've played some games casually with him, and he's a handful. His super aggressive terran is tough to deal with. He needs to ladder more as well to get some experience before I can really do a lot more with him. I'd love to see him get about 20 ladder games under his belt in the next few days.
Codetta
I haven't seen Codetta much lately, and he's still Bronze, though it looks like he's been winning some games on the ladder.
I continue to receive a lot of requests for coaching, and everyone that has sent me a message about it, I haven't forgotten about you. I've got a waiting list of about 10 people, and once some of my time is freed up I'll get to you. Thanks!
Previous Entries:
Free Newb Coaching
Newb Coaching Status #1
Newb Coaching Status #2
Newb Coaching Status #3
Newb Coaching Status #4
Newb Coaching Status #5
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