EPTIntroduction
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Hello there, I'm terrancake a protoss player, are you confused? When I played BroodWar I had three accounts on iCCup, zergcake, protosscake and terrancake, well actually I had more but whatever. Before SC2 came out I played mostly terran in BW so terrancake was stuck in my mind when I registered my account. My progress in SC2 has been slow and I do not like it, so this blog is mainly for myself to give me a boost in dedication to always try my best. I will try to keep track of my progress, my current problems and whatever notions or ideas I'm testing at the moment.
Goals
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Being platinum is way too low, my goal is to atleast get into diamond where I know I should be and take it from there. I want to play a solid and safe macro oriented playstyle and I know for a fact I should be able to outplay my opponents at my current rank. Yes, this whole "I'm better than my rank"-statement is a bit cocky and over used as everyone tends to say so, but stay with me, hopefully I'll prove me right.
Here is the list of goals I have for the near future:
- [Y] Play atleast 5 games every day.
- [N] Smooth out my mechanics.
- [N] My strongest aspect was once my macro, focus on macro until I feel confident in being able to constantly macro at a good enough level. There are no excuses in SC2 for having bad macro this is not BW where it was more like an art form (iloveoov springs to mind). No excuese, none... Shame on me.
- [N] Get back into diamond.
[Y] = Achived, atleast so far.
[N] = Not achieved.
Progress so far
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I started my counts and my progress evaluation from the day this blog was first posted. I had played games before this but this is a fresh start.
League: Platinum
Rating: 1187
Division rank: 1
Games played: 31
Days played: 3
Thoughts:
Still playing too sloppy and too poor. Lost a couple of games I shouldn't have lost. Atleast not lost that easy. I'm atleast number one in my division now, so that's a pretty good start I guess. Getting to play some diamond-league players, should be promoted soon. I wish I didn't have to sleep so I could just play through out the whole night.
Some stats:
31 games played,
12-2 vs. Z
7-1 vs. P
7-2 vs. T
Analysis of specifc games
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Quick analysis of the PvZ on Tal'Darim Altar on Day 1
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I opened with the build I had decided I would always play on Tal'Darim vs Zerg, a classic Forge Expansion, if my opponent goes hatch first I do the old cannon rush.
I have however played too few games to be comfortable with this build, the specific build order is under the vs Zerg Build order section below.
I scouted my opponent seeing a Pool - Gas opening. His pool went down at around 2 minutes so i figured it's a 14 or 15 pool 14 gas, turned out it was 14 pool 16 gas. Anyways, good news for me I thought as I could carry on with my build while being safe and sound. The spawn locations were cross position as well.
I tried to block his hatchery but failed, so i went and hid my probe for later scouting as I kept my build on track (I thought I did at the time atleast, but it was allready botched).
I later rescouted with my hidden probe in retrospect a bit too late, he had canceled his hatchery, exciting stuff were about to take place!
Lings! I saw lots of speed lings, scouted his main and there it was, in all its glory, a Baneling Nest.
No time for panicing, so I placed a pylon walling off the last open spot and placed my zealot at the outside of the wall to take a few baneling hits.
Even though i floated 1k minerals at the time of his attack, my 3 sentries (one more just about to finish), 1 zealot, 1 voidray and 2 cannons held his first attempt easy but it shouldn't have held it.... I should have added more gates and perhaps cannons bolstering my wall. and prepared a cannon in both my mineral lines incase of ling runbys, but I didn't.
On it went like this for a couple of tries before he gg'ed and left.
My Void Rays did almost nothing, sure they helped during the first and second attempt but couldn't really do much more he had 2 Queens and 2 Spores in his main.
My money skyrocketed after the first Void Ray
I only had 8 guys mining gas on my 4 assimilators. 3 probes mining on 2 assimilators, 2 probes mining on one and none on the fourth.
Conclusions
Add more Gateways directly after first and second Void Ray.
Can afford robo earlier.
Play through the build order a few more times vs AI to not fail on the easy non exciting parts. If you can't play out a build with perfection when you have no opponents, you never will when you do. In this case there was no reason for me to not be perfect up untill his first bust attempt.
Be more carefull with Force Fields, a good player would have busted me easy.
A sad game.
I should have lost.
Tactics and build orders
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vs. Zerg
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I have five build orders I feel comfortable with and that I will rotate amongst:
3 Gate Expansion -> 6 Gate + Robo (Immortal+Stalker)
A build I've seen WhiteRa play alot of times on maps like Xel'Naga. The build starts off as a standard 3 Gate Expansion but has a few twists. You get your robo and forge out as soon as you can, cut probles at 44 (16 mining minerals and 6 mining gas = 22 / base). Add on three more gateways. The attack happens just as +1 finishes with 2-3 Immortal and 6 Gateways of stalker reinforcements. This build is awesome against Zergs that takes a quick third and has nothing but roaches+spines to defend, usually a pretty easy win. If he isn't expanding or gets fast Hydras, start chonoing probes and gear up to take a third base, i tend to go for an Immortal+HT composition from this opening.
3 Gate Expansion -> 5 Gate + Robo -> Expansion.
Standard macro oriented game, try to secure my natural expansion with 3 gates, add on 2 more gates a robo and a robotics support bay to get colossus and expand again. I probably won't play this style very often as I feel it lacks the ability to put pressure on the Zerg. Works great on my current level of play facing platinum/gold players.
3 Gate DT Expand
Cheesy build rushing for 3 DTs while taking my expansions. Had a lot of success with this build in the past, gets map control until overseer is out and sometimes ends the game straight away. However I feel like I'm behind if I don't do A LOT of damage. Mid/late game tends to be Immortal+HT and a few Archons.
Here's two awesome builds I'll try to use for the most part, I stole them both from oGsMC and they are as he played them in MLG. Adaptions and transitions are not included, the build orders are food specific and not as loose as the ones above. The reason is that I have not yet played around with them for long enough to be able to comfortable just wing it and tweak it. The main reason I like getting an early Void Ray is that it helps you deal with Roach+Ling aggression as well as you can put pressure on the Zergs third base keeping his economy in check. The Phoenix follow up gives you map control or atleast map presence as well as good scouting information as you're macroing and teching.
1 Gate Expansion -> Void Ray (on most maps)
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9 Pylon
12 Gate
14 Assimilator
16 Pylon
17 Cybernetics core
18 Assimilator
19 Zealot
-- *Normal shiz non-stop Sentry, Warpgate*
24 Pylon
30 Pylon @ Natural
35 - *Cut probes continue with sentry production, stop at 5 sentries or you won't have gas for Void Ray*
35 - Nexus
35 - Gateway
37 - Gateway
37 - Stargate (Chrono Void Ray when Stargate finishes)
37 - *Resume probes*
38 - Pylon
42 - Forge
52 - Pylon
52 - Assimilator
52 - Assimilator
Forge Fast Expansion -> Void Ray or Cannon rush vs. Hat first (Will use on Shakuras and Tal'Darim)
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9 Pylon
13 Forge
17 *Cut Probes*
17 Nexus
17 Gate
17 Cannon
17 Assimilator
18 Pylon
18 Cybernetics core
18 *Zealot + Probe*
21 Pylon
25 Assimilator
27 Cannon
27 Stargate
31 Sentry (Chrono boost)
35 Pylon
35 Assimilator
36 Assimilator
37 Void ray (constant chrono)
42 Warpgate Research
vs. Terran
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I will mainly play two styles, TvP is my strongest matchup by far.
1 Gate Expansion -> (6 Gate All In | 3 Gate Robo+Bay -> Expansion | 3 Gate Double Robo 7 colossus push (old HuK style) | 5 Gate Robo - Expansion | 3 gate robo + 2 forge -> More gates + Expansion | 5 Gate Robo+Templars (Immortal+HT))
I tend to play my 1 Gate Exp out differently depending on map, spawn location and ofcourse scouting information. I dont know what else to say, I scout his front and count what marines and marauders I can see and base my decision of that. I can usually exclude some builds steering me towards one follow up or another.
3 Gate Expansion -> HT/Immortal
I stole this style form WhiteRa, it is the style I find most fun to play if you want to see more go to WhteRas webpage and download his "special tactics" replay packs. He uses this every now and again. You go for a 3 gate expansion with pressure if possible, add on a robo for observers. You need to scout his front before commiting and not just doing it blind, super fast banshee, rine allin, some other one base play = abort and get robo before expanding. If he is playing straight you get your 3rd gas, twilight council, templar archive, 4th gas and 2 more gates. You get 5(not 4, not 6) HTs while adding on 2 forges, start chronoing Immortals+upgrades and getting stalkers from 5 gates. Take your third base, start being aggressive with a nasty Immortal+HT army, be vary of ghosts. You usually catch up in upgrades when you are at 2-2 if you keep chronoboosting those forges. Add on A LOT of gateways so you can reinforce your army and constantly keep the aggression up. Once you can support it go ahead and add another robo, robotics bay and get some collossi. WhiteRa being the baller that he is also uses alot of warp prism play with this stratetgy.
Fun indeed!
HuK style 20 food Expansion -> 3 gate pressure with 4 stalkers & 3 zealots
Fun way to open, it is a variation of the 1 Gate Expansion but gives you the bonus of being aggressive early. It is however hard to hold a 2 rax aggressive opening from Terran, I've only played this build a few times but it seems to work out great on most maps. Will mix it in occasionally.
vs. Protoss
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Reactive 3gate Robo -> (Expansion | 2 Colossus - No Lance - Timing push)
Reactive style, trying to get observer out so I know what my opponent is doing. Go for the correct response and try to out macro and out play him.
Eco 4gate -> DTs
Cheesy build relying on doing damage. You start by going for a high eco, double gas 4 gate to pressure your opponent while teching to DTs. Hopefully will force the opponent to not get observers out in time and instead focus on attacking units, so that you can deal some damage with your DTs. After 2 DTs are enough, pull back your main force if it is still at your oppoents natural and expand while trying to harrass with your DTs. You go on by teching charge, getting a templar archive, a forge and go for a chargelot+archon style. Works pretty well, can be troublesome to deal with for the opponent. Watch Mr Bitters 12 more weeks with the pros when WhiteRa is teaching PvP, his opponent does this style and thats from where I got it. WhiteRa beats it but it was very very close.
Concerns and problems
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Mechanics
My mechanics are way worse than they were when I played BW. This needs to be addressed if I want to be playing a semi-high level.
Possible solution: Play more games.
Multitasking
My multitasking is amazingly bad, this leads to big problems when microing and macroing at the same time, I either macro poorly or get too passive.
Possible solution: Play more games.
PvP
My PvP is horrible, I feel like it is a coin toss every game. The reason is ofcourse that I'm just not good enough, mirror matchups tends to rely on experienced based in-game decisions which I still lack a lot of. I go for my build, he goes for his, we meet somewhere along the way and someone wins, that's usually how my PvPs play out.
Possible solution: Play more games.
Time
I work Monday thru Friday from 8:00 - 17:00 and some days I work overtime as well. I usually get home by 18:00 which means I do not have that much time to play as I need to cook and prepare stuff for the next work day, I live alone so I have no-one to do this for me. This coupled by football games I want to watch makes me lacking in time. I've set as a goal to play 5 games a day because of my lack of time, I would like it to be way more.
Possible solution: Make the most out of every game played. Play hard - Go pro - Quit Job. Get a girlfriend to do household stuff freeing up time to play (one of those mail order brides perhaps as getting a girlfriend is too time consuming?).
Energy
I wake up early and I'm usually well knackered by 18:00 when I get the time to play. This tends to have a heavy impact on my concentration and my overall results for the day, on weekends I play a lot better than I do on week days.
Possible solution: Energy drinks/Coffee? I prefer not to drink energy drinks due to the high sugar conetent and coffee has no effect on me as I drink it throughout the day. I'll have to figure something out...
Poor mindset
My mindset and mentality is poor, almost as bad as IdrA. When I start losing games I go into an almost self destructing spiral, this is why I've fallen from high diamond/low masters to platinum playng with a gold-level MMR. I've noticed patterns in my behavior, this only happens when I'm tired and never during weekends. I start messing about, I stop trying and start playing weird games this leads to lose streaks that can be upto 20 games before I give it a rest. My entusiasm to play vanishes and I take a weeks break or longer before it returns so I get rusty, play bad and I lose interest again.
Possible solutions: Calm down, it's only a game. Don't play when tired. Do a blog keeping the dedication up. Take a 15 minute break after losing, take a shower, go for a walk or do whatever that isn't SC2 related.
Solution recap
Play more games. Play every game as serious as a GSL final. Take breaks when tired/dissapointed/angry.
Replays
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