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Argh.
I just got back from a six month SCII hiatus. I'm watching replays and the game has changed significantly - viking/tank no longer dominates TvT play, Protoss has a safe FE build vs Zerg, and roaches went from incredible in the beta to awful and then now seem to be analogous to hydras in SC1 - an absolute staple of most zerg ground army mixes. There's a bunch of new progamers I don't recognize, and many I do. ITR impresses the hell out of me. IdrA is moving back from Korea. Some lady named Kelly keeps getting mentioned.
Another big change is my skill level. I went from playing 4 hours a day to zero playtime for six months. I'm god-awful, friends I used to stomp 1v1 are wiping the floor with me. Another friend of mine started playing again too, and he's noticed a change in the relative division skill levels. What was diamond six months ago now feels like gold or platinum level play. This is probably a result of the new Masters division and a shift in the skill bell curve, development of new strategy and six months of practice time for regular players. So now I'm stuck with six months of rust and no macro ability in diamond division, and the last thing I want to do in the world is click that 'find match' button and get steamrolled back into gold.
On the bright side, I have almost 6000 bonus pool?
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Ah, a feeling that we all know. Even a short time is enough to feel like the hotkeys aren't quite as firmly under your fingers as they used to be.
I'd suggest playing a few games against the AI at a fairly high level. Just get the controls back to you and make it so that you're solidly executing builds again.
At that point, the only real thing to do is to jump in and hit that "find match" button. Just have a couple strategies with you and go for it. Practice only one or two things and I'm sure you'll get back into the swing of things quickly.
Good luck, sir!
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Thanks man! I just need to click on the damn button and get it over with. I'm procrastinating laddering by studying for finals, this is bad.
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Don't think you can have 6000 bonus pool, but yeah, things have changed alot. Hopefully the new maps (and even more hopefully the GSL maps) will improve gameplay so we can have some longer ladder games too.
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On March 06 2011 11:12 Wr3k wrote:
Don't think you can have 6000 bonus pool, but yeah, things have changed alot. Hopefully the new maps (and even more hopefully the GSL maps) will improve gameplay so we can have some longer ladder games too.
Whoops, upon further inspection it is much, much closer to 3000 bonus pool. It would take over a year to get a 6k bonus pool if there is no upper limit.
+ Show Spoiler +
I watched the PainUser vs KiwiKaKi game, and the "omg expand all over the map" tactic taken by both players felt very Brood War -esque. I hope this is a continuing trend, macro games with top tier units can be more interesting to watch than 10-15 minute matches off of 2 bases.
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I call bs on your bonus pool I have only a 1500 one and ive been out for 8 months
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On March 06 2011 12:43 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:
I call bs on your bonus pool I have only a 1500 one and ive been out for 8 months
Call BS all you want, but that's the number I'm sitting on. I wish I had a way to prove it.
EDIT: Here's a 2nd screenie of the bonus pool.
+ Show Spoiler +
DOUBLE EDIT: Just ordered baby's first mechanical keyboard, time to get srs. :|
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On March 06 2011 11:08 gdroxor wrote:
Thanks man! I just need to click on the damn button and get it over with. I'm procrastinating laddering by studying for finals, this is bad.
This is one of the most ironic things I've ever seen, lol.
On March 06 2011 13:44 gdroxor wrote:Show nested quote +On March 06 2011 12:43 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:
I call bs on your bonus pool I have only a 1500 one and ive been out for 8 months Call BS all you want, but that's the number I'm sitting on. I wish I had a way to prove it. EDIT: Here's a 2nd screenie of the bonus pool. + Show Spoiler +DOUBLE EDIT: Just ordered baby's first mechanical keyboard, time to get srs. :|
Sweet! Which one did you get?
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On March 07 2011 04:52 Char711 wrote:Show nested quote +On March 06 2011 11:08 gdroxor wrote:
Thanks man! I just need to click on the damn button and get it over with. I'm procrastinating laddering by studying for finals, this is bad. This is one of the most ironic things I've ever seen, lol. Show nested quote +On March 06 2011 13:44 gdroxor wrote:On March 06 2011 12:43 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:
I call bs on your bonus pool I have only a 1500 one and ive been out for 8 months Call BS all you want, but that's the number I'm sitting on. I wish I had a way to prove it. EDIT: Here's a 2nd screenie of the bonus pool. + Show Spoiler +DOUBLE EDIT: Just ordered baby's first mechanical keyboard, time to get srs. :| Sweet! Which one did you get?
:D
Got a Razer BlackWidow, the regular kind, not the one with the fancy-dancy LED backlighting. It has a factory cosmetic defect, so I got a pretty sweet deal for it too. It's a damn big upgrade, I've got one of those generic beige keyboards with the collapsible plastic dome keys. It's missing a couple keys, the plus key on the number pad has been torn off and broken, and the space bar has only one working sensor. This thing has to be at least 10 years old. At some point I'll upgrade my ghetto-ass mouse and pad too.
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The keyboard arrived today!
Maaaaan, what a difference mechanical makes. This thing is absolutely solid compared to my old keyboard.
Old (approximation)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7yXw1.jpg)
New (Enhanced to show texture)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hi0dR.jpg)
Like, all of the keys work 100% of the time! The tactile response is great. The only drawback I've found so far is that the keys do pick up everything - I'm so used to fat-fingering 2 keys at a time sometimes that my keyboard accuracy has gone way down for now. I'm sure things will be much better once I get used to it. I'm already typing faster, this is fantastic.
I think my favorite part is the loud CLACKCLACKCLACK the keys make. If I could get that sound as an mp3, I'd play it to go to sleep every night.
I've been playing the multitasking map a bit today and feel like my speed is almost back up to what it was. Part of getting used to this keyboard involves the E key being closer than I'm used to. I've hammered W for several seconds a few times now trying to build probes or a pylon before realizing I was hitting the wrong key. As soon as these finals are over, I'm going to ladder so hard.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JDFSA.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/N9mir.jpg)
