EPTPrior to SC2
I didnt think my computer was good enough for sc2, so I watched husky and hd vids, while playing broodwar at the time. I joined a clan and lost a million games. It was a very short lived time in broodwar for me.
Practice League
I played as protoss in my first ever sc2 game online, on the SEA server (Im Australian). I lost to "AussieEddie". In fact, I lost a few times as toss and then concluded that I was either doing it wrong, or it was hard to play as toss, or both. So I changed to zerg. I actually found zerg to be a more enjoyable race to play as.
It was around this point I decided that I wanted to get to a high league on the SEA server as well. At the time I think only diamond was the highest, but that goal changed to masters league once it was released.
One game I can remember in practice league that I obsessed over was when I let a terran scan my main, see the roach warren being made. Then I cancelled it, teched to hydras instead, made a huge amount of them and saw his mass marauder get picked off very easily. I then just steamrolled him and won.
Eventually, I was able to finish all 50 practice league games. I felt this was necessary because I dont have much previous RTS experience to playing sc2. Then, I went into...
Placement Matches
It was horrible. So I landed into...
Bronze League
I went into the game with low expectations, and got low results. But, I still had my goal of getting to a high league. I started watching day9 and learnt how I was actually meant to play as zerg, after a while. At the time, I felt I was playing as fast as I could, mechanically. But looking back, I was slow as heck, just didnt realise it. My strategies were also pretty inconsistent, but that probably wasn't nearly as important. I joined the sc2sea.com BSG (Bronze Silver Gold) number 1. I lost in the first round, but as I'd heard, losing lets you improve, so I decided to keep joining BSGs. After a while of doing training on ladder non-stop, day after day (it was holiday period for me) and joining a few BSGs, I got into...
Silver League
In the BSGs, I kept getting eliminated first round. I also joined a community open for sc2sea.com where anyone can join, and lost to a masters. The next week I did it again, and faced against inFiRoz. I havent joined since in the community open (Roz usually gets within top 5 on the SEA server). Eventually, in a BSG I was placed against BakaInu, who had taken the #2 spot in the first BSG. I somehow managed to beat him with a strange 2base roach nydus allin, as his army got caught out of position. That was a huge motivational boost for me at the time, regardless of the fact I got eliminated in the next round by a protoss.
I also sent an application to be staff on sc2sea.com and by surprise, got accepted. I decided to be an admin for the BSG, since I'd been so dedicated to it already anyway. On ladder however, I managed to get an 11 game winning streak, leading me straight into...
Gold League
Feeling like I was really starting to get on a roll, I really started to work on my mechanics and macro around this point. I found that in many games, I could just go SUPER macro heavy and have a good chance of winning. This was usually because of inconsistent strategies being used against me or the opponent just having worse macro/mechanics. I did however, spend a large amount of time in this league. I kept watching day9 and trying to learn how to do ZvZ.
In fact, ZvZ probably needs an entire paragraph on how much work I spent on it. I literally practiced it for a month and turned out being bad at the end of it, regardless. I saw the day9 build, the zelniq mass queen / roach build, Ret's 15hatch into roach style, I generally tried macro/teching builds. But I kept losing every now and then, regardless of this practice. I eventually learnt that in ZvZ, nothing is a constant, and any build can work well, sometimes regardless of the build of the opponent. I even managed to hold off a 7pool with spines allin when I had 15hatched!
The focus on ZvZ somehow got me to...
Platinum League
I really started to feel strong here, and began casting games. I casted some sc2sea.com events (and still do atm), and some of my own games. At the same time, I was still organising BSGs as an admin for sc2sea.com. Unfortunately, I found that I didnt have a huge amount of time for playing, since I was making so many other tasks for myself than the actual gameplay. I was also watching a rediculous amount of streams and VODs on the game, and got addicted to watching PsyStarcraft and Day9 (If I wasn't already addicted to Day9 before). I eventually found enough time in my schedule to ladder heavily like I had been doing before, and got myself to 3200 points. But in getting to that point, I also noticed I hadn't been heavily focused on ZvT and ZvP, but rather ZvZ as that was my most played matchups with the most annoying losses. Then the season ended.
North America Placements
In hearing about the next season oncoming, I decided to actually do my 1v1 placement games for the North American server. I won all 5 and instantly got diamond league. Not much else to say there, apart from the fact I had a good win/loss ratio after getting to diamond, without a huge amount of games played.
Season 2 Placement Match
I had been raking up a good win/loss ratio prior to season 2. So of course, I was looking to win this to get diamond. Of course, I went into the game and easily... lost. FUUUU-
This got me to...
Diamond League
Uh... Okay, I dont want to even try to understand how that works, but Im happy to finally be in diamond league nonetheless. Im currently changing to casting the BSGs and getting a new computer for better gaming performance (And so I dont need to share the computer with my brother), and I've actually found a more consistent playstyle for ZvZ. In season 2, Im currently 10-4 win/loss and Im still going to try to get to masters. I might make another blog post when I ACTUALLY get there, but for now, this is where Im at. My ZvP is a bit weak, and my ZvT could be improved, by my ZvZ is getting pretty strong now, after playing a ridiculous amount of it in previous leagues.
Conclusions
Nothing beats playing a lot. Make no mistake, I actually had to play heaps to get my macro and mechanics up to scratch, and Im still not impressed by my own ability to use mechanics. If you sit back and analyse why you lost each game, sure, you might improve strategy-wise, but you need to also get your mechanics and game sense, as well as the ability to make fast decisions up.
Oh, and the matchups shouldn't be complained about, but rather investigated thoroughly. Sure, I've complained about matchups a bit in the past, but that doesn't excuse losing in a matchup. I still had to work my way up to the point where I could actually win in those cases.
Also, play SC2 for fun. I chose to do all of this to have something to be dedicated to, but I also find any of the starcraft games as generally fun. The campaigns are fun, finding strategies and builds for multiplayer is fun, even trying to work out why I lost is fun (for me). If I chose terran or protoss, I dont think I'd be having as much fun, I'd probably be abusing a few builds rather than keeping an open mind.
Note: Im not saying im in a high and mighty position to draw to these conclusions, its just what I think currently based on my previous experiences. Take most of what I've said lightly.
You're Zerg too, which I think is the hardest race to play (I play Random)
