EPTFirst off, I want to congratulate Aegis and his team for hosting a very smooth, well-run tournament. There were no hiccups or problems at all (as far as I know) and everyone was respectful and the people were great. With that, here's my tournament run.
Getting up at 6:30 when you've been going to bed at 3 every other night the past week is pretty tough. Fortunately, I managed to pull it off and meet my ride over to UMBC on time. I'm a Hopkins student, so we've got a good 20-25 minute drive over, to be there around 8 or so, with a 9 AM start time. However, one of our teammates doesn't wake up. A car of four tired dudes sits outside this kid's place for nearly an hour trying to call him, and it takes 8 calls to wake him up, and another 4 or 5 to get him to leave his place. Once he finally gets in the car, at 8 on the dot, he tells us we gotta go to his friend's place to get his laptop. Ugh. So we do that, finally make it out to UMBC by 8:30.
Fortunately there was no urgency to get there outside of checking in, so we go in, figure out where to sit, and then go for the breakfast that the UMBC guys lovingly provided for us. They have a nice selection of bagels, strudels and juice, and I go for the large apple strudel and a glass of apple juice. So I like apple. Needing a little more, I go back in to find the gigantic chocolate cake sitting there, with a slice cut out of it. Deciding that chocolate cake is the breakfast of champions, I take a small slice and thoroughly enjoy. It was a really good cake, no idea where it came from, but man that hit the spot strangely enough.
Soon, its time to go head into the players room. I connect to the wireless connection they have set up for the players, and start testing before the match starts. I notice that I'm lagging vs a computer. This is concerning, but hope it doesn't affect the match too much. Before I go further, I want to discuss the bracket I end up with. Here's what it looks like -
-----Me (Z)
-----Opponent (Z)
|
-----Dude 1 (Z)
-----Dude 2 (Z)
That's right, playing a ZvZ, then the winner of a ZvZ. So guess where most of my practice time went -_-
So before they tell us to start I spend the time just chatting with the dude I'm about to play and how we got the worst draws ever and that they are purposefully teamkilling zergs and general QQing about our bracket, and finally get the green light.
G1 - Metalopolis.
The load screen takes an abnormally long time to load, and we figure its probably just a little laggy since everyone is starting at once. No, I've actually dropped from the game and I just don't know that. Guess I'm switching to the wireless network they didn't want us to use (probably for bandwidth purposes) and see how that goes.
Take 2
I spawn at the 8 o'clock position. My general gameplan here is to do the Ret build - 15 Hatch, 15 Pool, 15 Gas, slam a roach warren when I can, and prepare to fight zerglings. That is, unless I'm in close positions then I'll be more cautious and take my 14 Gas 14 Pool. Of course, he's in close position. I run my scout around a little, and take note of the roach warren being put down before leaving his base and saving my drone. I'm feeling pretty comfortable at this point, as all of his stuff was a little earlier, meaning I have more drones at this point. I can just make another round or two, then start making roaches. Since I'm feeling comfortable, I decide I can take an expo as well. Then about 30 speedlings show up with +1 attack. O_O. I miss the cancel on the hatch, and barely hold my ramp with the roaches. However, I clean up most of his force, make another round of roaches, and counterattack, and retake my nat. I manage to wipe his expo clean, and push up behind his mineral line. He pulls drones, makes a ton of reinforcements, and manages to kill off my roaches with heavy losses. I send in reinforcements, but now we're starting to trade instead of me winning battles. However, I still think I can kill him, so I start massing roaches outside his base, and try again. I meet a TON of speedlings, who surround my roaches and get killed by a high ground spine crawler. I again am forced to block my rampa nd use a handful of roaches to scare away his speedlings from killing my nat again. He does take my queen, but its not a huge loss, the natural barely has any drones because I had been rallying units to his base. At this point, we're actually around even, minus the upgrades. We both go to lair tech, he opts for +2 and Spire, while I opt for roach speed and hydras. However, I'm not quite fully prepared for his mutas and take too much damage. I decide I need to go now or I'm just gonna get out macroed. I get to his natural and get quickly swallowed by a ton of speedlings and mutas, gg.
This was a 25 minute ZvZ that was spent mostly on hatch tech. It was a little ridiculous and little taxing. My opponent decides to take a 5 minute break for bathroom and such, and I use this to my advantage. I had been mulling over the idea of using the Day[9] ZvZ build if I were to lose. I decide to hop on TL and see if I can find a build order to use. Thank God for the search function, as I find one nearly immediately and begin memorizing. For those that don't know, the build is a quick second gas, and lair immediately after you get speed upgrade. You survive by walling with roaches on your ramp until Lair tech, where you can do anything you want. Its a really fun build, and I had just the thing for this G2.
G2 - Desert Oasis.
Hell yeah, I pick Desert Oasis. Talking to my opponent afterward, he was very surprised by this pick, and had almost never played on the map. I figured that'd be the case for most people here, and with what I have cooked up, it was a perfect map. Figuring he'd probably go his +1 speedlings again, the gigantically huge rush distance would make this the perfect map for this build. I spawn in the north position, and begin executing. I scout the same build from him that he did last game, but am not too concerned this time. I start getting roaches out, and notice a tiny blip on my minimap inside my base. I go to examine it with a roach to fine two banelings charging toward my mineral line. I barely snipe one of them with my roach and queen, the other goes off in the minerals but doesn't have enough umph to kill a drone. I sigh in relief, as I figure the worst of this game is probably over now. I just wonder if he noticed I was morphing a liar already. Lair finishes, and I slam a Spire down in the furthest location from possibly overlord scouts as possible. A little thumb twiddling and drone pumping later, I have five mutas headed right for him. These five mutas proceed entirely wipe his main of drones, but he's taken his natural and is now putting up a ton of spore crawlers. He's also got lair, but not for long as I take down his newly completed spire and start to work. However, he's attempting a speedling counter attack. I realize if I can defeat these lings I've got the game, and fly my flock of now 8 or 9 mutas back home to clean up the mess. I try to fly over to his now main base to finish it, and am greeted by a horde of spore crawlers and a hydra den. I shrug, and begin rallying roaches to him. 10 roaches later he ggs out.
This time I'm the one who needs the five minute break. I'm physically shaking slightly due to the stress of the situation. This last game decides whether I'm eliminated or if I go on. I decide to go back to my original plan of the Ret build while I get some water. We start.
Game 3 - Shakuras Plateau
Shakuras, I think to myself as I rally my drones. I could potentially do the same build as last game again, just making sure to block my ramp well. If I scout the 10 pool again, I'll do it. I scout the 10 pool. I change my game plan to suit. However, he attacks before I have but two roaches, and am forced to make lings to survive. I catch a pair of lings trying to morph to banelings in the side of my base, and then go back to walling the ramp. Lair finishes, and the spire is on the way, when 30 +1 lings show up to say "hi" to my 3 roaches and 6 lings. The game lasts maybe 5 seconds longer before I gg out.
And that was that, out in the Ro64. If I were a better player, I'd have realized that I should have just gone banelings and I'd have won. Talking to the guy afterward, he asked me this and I didn't have an answer. I got so locked into my build orders and game plan that I couldn't change it, and wasn't nearly flexible enough. I've definitely now learned to not be afraid to change my gameplan to suit my situation. Adapting is one of the hallmarks of a good player, something I aspire to be one day. My opponent was a very gracious opponent, and we talked afterward, and praised my build game 2.
I went to see how our other 4 players did, to find only one of us was left, our friend who can't get up to save his life. Granted we learned later he had gone to bed at 5 and was hungover as hell, but hey, what can you do. He ended up losing next round to a really really strong Protoss, probably mid-high masters league and fully deserved it. Watching him play was a treat. We hung around a while longer, watching other games, and ended up getting herded to the casting room where there was a giant projector and a live stream set up. Between games they were giving out free stuff, so we grabbed some pizza and headed over. The castor starts asking the audience trivia questions for SteelSeries prizes. These questions were everything from Starcraft (What's the hotkey for the Warp Prism speed upgrade?) to biology (what are the stages of mitosis?). One of the other Hopkins guys ended up getting the Warp Prism upgrade question (eventually, it took us like 6 or 7 tries, it was sad), and I got the best question of them all. "Do your best impersonation of Day[9]'s overlord impersonation. That's SC1 overlord, mind you." So I get up front and do my best overlord HGHHHAHBHLBLHABHL and, with a pleased crowd, scored a Steel Series mousepad. At least I got something from the tournament!
Soon after we decide to all depart to take naps (we had gotten up early after all), and then play in our CSL match. But the tournament itself was a great experience and was a lot of fun despite the early 1-2 out. Hope someone got something out of my story, and I'd love to hear what others thought of the tournament!
