EPTI reached master's league yesterday! Current ladder score is 165 - 106. I don't know if if took me a lot more games than it should or w/e, but yea. Pretty happy of course. The last game I won was a ZvZ where I went 14g --> 14pool vs a 14 hatch. I pressured with ling baneling and got a lucky baneling hit on about 8 lings, forcing him to overcompensate on zerglings while I droned up. From there my advantage just snowballed. Just some general reflections:
Reaching masters
I played Sc:BW as Terran for almost exactly a year (started started August 2 summers ago until I quit / took a break this August), and the race was pretty demanding mechanically. Reached D+ on iCCup with Terran, so I really had no problem switching to Sc2 with its easier macro system. I reached diamond after 80 wins and roughly 45 losses knowing almost nothing about the game (I actually thought hydras were good vT). Even now I don't know that much other than what unit does well against what other unit. The only build order I've looked up is the 7 roach rush, everything else I just play by instinct, which is a far cry from all the specific builds BW forced you to memorize to have a chance on iccup. I've just relied on the mechanics I learned from brood war: workers, macro, larva, macro, macro, more macro.
Zerg
Zerg feels pretty underpowered to me. My problem is just how easy it is to lose to Protoss and Terran players who are way worse than you because they have so many early game all ins that are hard to scout and hard to react to (4 warpgate WTF). If I get to the midgame on even footing im fairly comfortable but reaching this is tough. That being said, I love Zerg. It's almost exactly my style, which is being passive, expanding, and making units, yet it offers a ton of options (infestors, mutas, banelings, burrow, nydus) that can add creativity if used well. Spreading creep always gives me something to do and something to improve on. I wish I'd have more viable ways to pressure early though.
Of all matchups, ZvT is definitely the one I'm most comfortable in and the one I have the highest winrate in. Muta ling baneling is a really strong composition thats buth strong and mobile.
ZvP I'm really bad in. It's funny cause I was Terran in BW so I was terrible vs Protoss back then too. Warpgate all ins are really hard to stop, and even if you do a decent toss can expand while he's pressuring you and have a good economy. In the midgame I have a hard time vs collosus. My strat is usually to overcompensate on corruptors to kill a collosus and remax to fight the gateway composition but on most maps I'll lose like 2 expos because you obviously need mroe than 5 seconds to remax
Maps
Wtf the maps are so horrible. Thinking back to brood war there were so many memorable maps that were balanced while being innovate and fun to play on (HBR was one of my favorites). At best, a few maps in sc2 are "ok (Shakuras and Metalopolis). Some though are just embarrassingly bad and half of them feature stupid gimmicks (backdoor on blistering). I have no idea how blizzard felt Steppes, Delta, Kulas, and Jungle were ok to release. Played a few games on 2 of the new GSL maps recently and they're much better.
Clans
I played in the clan overdosed in brood war but considering I was D+ while the rest of the Clan was C- to B- i didn't really think much of it. Too nooby to practice with 90% of the players and participate in clan wars. Looking for a nooby masters league clan atm lol
Strat Forum
The strat forum is just depressing lol. Every now and then there's a few people who know what they're talking about but most of the time it's just below diamond noobs theory-crafting without experience and thinking they're better than they are. This in itself isn't a problem I guess, but its annoying because theyre so ridiculously condescending vs people who have a different opinion. I remember when beta came out we had a lot of players like Idra, Orb, HuK, Nazgul, and LaLush contribute to the strat forum but I'm pretty sure theyre completely alienated now.
Anyway yea, I reached masters :D. Its probably not a huge deal cause i doubt masters requires more skill than D+ on the iccup ladder but yea, I'm happy with it. Wrote this blog in 15 minutes as a way of
Maybe you should apply, I heard the guys there are good as well.
