EPTThis is BabyToss again, with semi-weekly update. Quite an eventful week in regards of StarCraft2, as far as I can tell. First of all, I began laddering again. Not massing games per say yet, but I'm slowly getting back to it. Originally, I wanted to do it on my NA account, but it seems the amount of cheese in Bronze on NA is unbearable, so I'll save that for when my defence against cheese becomes more confident and solid.
So, after quite a long time, I launched my EU account in order to get some ladder games under my belt. Not getting cheesed nearly at all, the only cheese I got there so far was this guy who 8pooled me and it was totally my fault I didn't catch the Pool going up, despite of my probe having the vision of it, according to the minimap. That is one of my ongoing weaknesses. I forget to watch my minimap all the time, so I sometimes get surprised by something, which would otherwise not make me move a finger. So, I often miss things like incoming drops or some weird type of harrass, like reapers.
First things first...
Coaching with Ryan Rushia
Coaching with Ryan Rushia 2 - Deeper Into Gameplay, pt1
(See the rest in added link to whole playlist)
Coaching with Ryan Rushia 2 - Deeper Into Gameplay Playlist
Coaching with Ryan Rushia 3 - Defending Common Protoss Cheese, pt1
Coaching with Ryan Rushia 3 - Defending Common Protoss Cheese Playlist
I've had two sessions with Ryan this week. And in fact, we'll be doing those weekly as well so I thought that sharing the lessons with others may help people who struggle to get better & promoted as well. Of course, these lessons are aimed at Bronze/Silver skill level, so most of Diamonds/Masters won't get too much from them.
Regardless. This week, we went deeper into my gameplay and finally, the other day (yesterday in fact), we touched the infamous Cheese subject - because as I mentioned in my previous blogs, this happens to be my huge weakness right now. We went over common Protoss cheese; cannon rushing and 2gate Proxy. How that went? Well, getting cheesed for close to two hours. Man, that sounds funny, doesn't it? Certainly, it does help to get some 'know how' and I hope it'll help me to not overreact as much next time I face cheese on the ladder.
For the next week's sessions, wel'll probably go over the cheese a bit more, stuff like 6pool and terran cheese, to have the whole cheese covered. I hope that we'll not need whole lesson for that, but we'll see.
Overally, me and Ryan flourish so nicely together, so not only I get good lessons, but we also have time to have some fun and laughs as we go through stuff. Definitelly enjoying having Ryan as my coach. He keeps things informative, helpful but, at the same time, he makes the lessons so much fun, with his friendly, patient and helpful attitude.
Getting stronger...?
Those, who've been following my blog this far probably know about my problems with negative mindset. This is one of things, which is improving for me slowly, but steadily. Of course, it's not only my own effort. In fact, I've had quite a strong help from Lazy Macro/Bitters (How's your macro, bro? Still lazy? Sorry, just had to, man :D) & Ryan Rushia, who happens to be my coach. I cannot forget people like Noobert & Loophole either. Thank you guys. And one random shooutout to Coolhite as well, although I'm not going to play you too much until I get even better! The reason being is, an advice from Ryan, that playing people so much above my own level is not helping too much, as often, I'd not be even able to tell WHY I lost the game. That, and it's the mindset thing as well. When I played exclusively my high league friends, I'd not see a single win for WEEKS. That'd probably kill self-confidence of most people. And, that's what happened with me. I kept playing my friends and still kept getting crushed. It led to me to not being able to see any progress.
Ongoing Challenge!
While I haven't reached Silver league yet, playing ladder again kind of showed me that I do not necesarily lose 100% of my games, so I am not as hopeless as I originally thought. But, there's clearly a huge room for improvement, as sometimes, I make wrong decisions and it costs me the game I'd otherwise win. I'm also getting faced against Silver guys quite often... and my W/L fluctates between clean 50%. Kinda need to get it higher. I'm not sure how the MatchMaker works, but, I get faced against Silver each time I am at even win/loss score or higher. I've not had too good moments there, lost two games out of three against Silver guys; but it was completelly my fault and mistake. I need to focus on small things like better scouting and watching my minimap.
The only thing I noticed with laddering is; that I'm unable to mass games yet. I find ladder games much more mentally taxing than mere practice games and after like 5 games I simply have to take a break, no matter how many I win or lose. Now, I usually was laddering at rather weird hours, my good start was at 2 am, where everyone sleeps and I'm not distracted by anyone. But, if I keep doing it that way, play until I am mentally exhausted in need of hour or so break, then I won't get to play too many games. I need to probably start laddering earlier, so I can actually afford these breaks inbetween games and eventually, to adapt well enough, to be able to play more games without break. More games = more improvement, right?
In short, the challenge is still here. To reach Silver. The very first step towards the end goal. I was told to slow down on my goals, so I try to not rush things too much...
That's it for this week update. Wish me luck, as BabyToss keeps on fighting!
