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First tourney games + league promotion.

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Alokiya United States648 Posts June 25 2011 09:05 GMT #1 So least year my friend introduced me to starcraft 2, the first RTS game I'd played since the WC3 Campaign with cheat codes in middle school. At the start, I was the worst kind of bad. I would 1 base muta off 14 drones and complain about balance in TvZ. After being introduced to husky and day9, I learned about the pro scene and was intrigued. I slowly got better, playing all 3 races from time to time, but sticking with zerg for the majority of my playing. At the end of season 1, I was in gold, and early in season 2 I was promoted to platinum. I entered into the Geforce Proam tournament for the lols, hoping to just play and maybe win a few games. When I saw my group had 4 bronze/silver players, 2 gold and a platinum, I was brimming with confidence. I practiced my ZvP for hours on end with friends to prepare for my first match, a platinum protoss. We played last night, and the following happened. Match 1, Shakuras Plateau: My opponent, Balink, opened with a 1 gate sentry expand, a rather risky build in my opinion prior to the match. Well, turns out if you dick around and don't bumrush him imminently, those sentries get quite a bit of stockpiled energy. I opened 14gas 14 pool speedlings, the safest build vs protoss, and got my expansion at 21 supply. I droned like a mad man during this time, trying to keep map awareness up with my speedlings. After scouting the fast expo, I made the first of 3 huge mistakes that cost me the game. Mistake number 1 I went for a build that I both hate and suck at, the roach/speedling all in. Normally I don't all in unless it's bad map spawns, but something in my big ol brain decided that all inning against a bunch of sentries and good sim city with lings was a good idea. Mistake number 2 happens here. I got about 9 roaches and pushed off 1.5 bases of minerals and just 1 vespene gas. The results? This is why I can't have nice things So after my failed all in, I go for a lair and drone hard, but notice on the minimap my opponent is pushing with a pretty intimidating gateway force. My final mistake was to attempt, with an army in my face, to get roach burrow and movement, which is an expensive set of upgrades. they don't pop nearly in time and I'm forced to gg with no army left to combat my opponent. Balink 1-0. Maps are losers choice, so I go for metalopolis, a map I feel comfortable on after playing 200 games on it. It's the mlg version, so no close by ground spawns, and we spawn cross map. I open 14gas 14 pool again, because I am a robot for the first 3 minutes of a game. I throw down my hatchery and drone hard, trying to scout my opponent, but he's walled in. I manage to sneak a zergling by and see the following. That would be 4 gateways and a twilight council But my opponent then does this without me getting a followup scout. That would be not 4 gates. At this point my brain is in DON'T DIE mode, and I made 30~ zerglings and throw down a bunch of spine crawlers, expecting the 4 gate, but a sac overlord sees his tech switch and low building count, meaning I can send my lings in and attack. Day9's cardinal rule of starcraft: Make units, kill with units My ling pressure breaks Balink, and having no army or expo, he bows out, tying the series at 1-1. The third map is MLG shattered temple, one of the most balanced maps in the current pool (only metal is better imo)My opponent opens 1 gate sentry expand while I do 14 gas 14 pool 21 hatch like clockwork from close by air positions. I go for a rather quick lair, around when my natural finished, and when lair pops I throw down a hydralisk den and research overlord speed and drops, planning to take advantage of the extremely small gap between our bases, and I knew I couldn't attack the front vs his sim city. I get drops around when I have 16 hydralisks and prepare to paratrooper an army into his main. This is a hydralisk drop, it is the destroyer of nexi I drop my fuckton of hydras into my opponents base, and right away target down his nexus, knowing that the hydra dps is too fast for him to be able to save it. Pictured, alot of dps. not pictured, more dps off screen, fuck you small monitor My drop kills his nexus, 16 probes and most of his army at the cost of my hydras, thankfully, I remembered to macro (albeit poorly) during this, so I have an army to work with. My opponent during this time was working towards colossi, which I didn't know until my hydra/ling army decided that running into a choke point vs protoss was a good idea. I back off after trading lings and hydras for health damage on 2 colossus, and my opponent pushes out with a relatively meager force, consisting of 2 colossi plus ~12 gateway units. As he pushes in, he hallucinates 2 colossi, and I didn't know this because I was looking away to macro, so now I'm thinking it's 5 colossi vs my hydra ling with only 5 corruptors. Hydra ling is not usually good vs Colossi However many colossi he may have, my mass hydra simply crushes through his army and proceeds to walk forward and deliver the killing blow. I may have been fist pumping at my desk at this point Overrun and with no army, Balink is forced to GG, giving me a 2-1 victory in the series and putting me in position to win my group undefeated. Along with all of this, I was placed into diamond tonight after winning 5 or 6 games in a row vs high diamond, and feel like I can win my group in the Geforce Proam and make it into the next round. Thank you all for reading, feel free to critique my writing style, as I'm an aspiring journalist who would love nothing more than to work in ESPORTS one day. But be gentle, I get hurted easily

kollin United Kingdom8380 Posts June 25 2011 09:18 GMT #2 Wow, this is really good writing actually. It's like a proper battle report :D Good luck with your tournament, may the Force be with you.

Alokiya United States648 Posts June 25 2011 09:21 GMT #3 EDIT: Accidently quoted instead of editing post, derp.

wonderwall New Zealand695 Posts June 25 2011 10:24 GMT #4 In that metal game always have a few lings sitting outside his main. If he wants to stick his head outside his base then you should know about it. This lets you see the instant he wants to move out to attack and lets you scout any sneaky nexus timings like that.

PoachedEggs Denmark4 Posts June 25 2011 10:52 GMT #5 good read. gl in tourney

Cramsy Australia1100 Posts June 25 2011 11:16 GMT #6 Read it all. WP

freddyy Sweden56 Posts June 25 2011 12:33 GMT #7 Very nice writing, combined with the pictures it was quite intriguing. I crossed my fingers after reading about the hydra drop, and felt relieved that the additional Colossi was hallucinated. GG!

Davidxcom Germany94 Posts June 25 2011 15:34 GMT #8 Nice one! I know that feeling (: The first tournament win feels awesome doesn't it? When I hit gold league I started participating in the ESL cups for gold/platinum (I believe they hold them 2 times a week and you can get free premium if you win!) That really helped out a lot, I can`t believe how nervous I got when the countdown for my first game there was going down. I got manhandled pretty badly ^_^ Tournament games are great for experience and learning. Honestly I just can advice you to play as much as you can and play in every tourney you can. I played in those Gold/Platinum cups for about 4 weeks and after winning the first cup you get a really exhilarating feeling. With that momentum I moved up to Diamond (Continued with diamond-cups and master followed at the start of season 2) And another advice: Don't be afraid to sign up for cups like Go4SC2 or others just because there is no regulation of skill for the players. It is a great experience to play against pros if you are "lucky" and get them at the first round. (I always thought my pvp was solid, but I got ToD in round 1 someday and he completely demolished me. Just the experience to play against such highlevel players is valuable.) Great write up, and keep up the training!

xsksc United Kingdom1044 Posts June 25 2011 15:41 GMT #9 Nice blog, had fun reading it, congrats and gl in your tourny!

Alokiya United States648 Posts June 25 2011 20:06 GMT #10 Thanks for all the kind words guys! I was expecting someone to come in here and tear me to shreds, but I'm pleasantly surprised that no win did. @davidxcom, can you play in the esl cups on the NA server? I'd use a friend's EU account, but I don't want angry phone calls to lead to a lynch mob vs blizzard.

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