EPTFirst off, I was very surprised by the number of people who bothered to read my last (first) post. When I was writing it felt like this whole thing might have just been an exercise for myself but no. People responded and I thank you all for that. It was nice.
Anyways, onto Star Craft II.
Since yesterday I have zigzagged my way up the ladder a little bit. I was ranked 70 or so at the time of my last post and now I am ranked 52 in my silver league division. Yay for progress. I am told that ladder ranking don't matter, and I believe this, but even so it feels good to move up.
Also I may be a bit late on this but the ladder is getting locked in preparation for season 3. I am not sure what to think about this. It won't halt my progress as a player which is good but I do like see my movement up the ladder. We will see where I get placed when the ladder is unlocked.
Now it is time for me to recount a game or two. Both losses, but that's how we learn, no?
Game #1 ZvT
+ Show Spoiler +
First off I must say that I do not have builds for different match-ups. So most of my games I do an extractor at 12 and 14 pool and by now I should have scouted and I go from there.
So at 10/10 I send a worker scout and see 2 barracks and a gas. I don't know what to make of this because I am inexperienced. I am always afraid of a rush/early push so I get defensive. I build a spine crawler near my mineral line and a roach warren. I also have an overlord between my base and his.
I build a few zerglings for defense. I now have 20 food and he has 27. Big difference I think. I am also 3 workers behind.
I expand to my natural. However just as the hatch finishes marauders arrive. I send down the few roaches I have produced as well as my queen. The hatch and my units are promptly killed as the marine reinforcements arrive. He has rallied his barracks to my natural.
I produce a few zerglings and another spine crawler.
Nine minutes in I am 15 food behind, 3 workers behind and am starting to float about 500 minerals. He rushes my ramp again and am barely able to held him off. I respond by turtling up with 6 spine crawlers along my ramp.
Later I do manage to push him out but reinforcements arrive and rip me apart. I gg and leave
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Issues I see:
1) I don't know what to make of my scouting information.
2) Near the end I was starting to float a lot of minerals. I tried to throw down some extra hatches but it did not help as much as I hoped it would.
3) I was late with the expand. I usually aim for about 4 minutes, this one was at 5:15 or so. That extra 75 seconds might have allowed me to keep it and prevented the siege that followed.
4) I was constantly behind in the worker count. I need more drones. Previously I had been losing because I had made to many and scaled back. I fear I may have scaled back to far.
Replay Link: http://replayfu.com/r/FVDLVj
So at 10/10 I send a worker scout and see 2 barracks and a gas. I don't know what to make of this because I am inexperienced. I am always afraid of a rush/early push so I get defensive. I build a spine crawler near my mineral line and a roach warren. I also have an overlord between my base and his.
I build a few zerglings for defense. I now have 20 food and he has 27. Big difference I think. I am also 3 workers behind.
I expand to my natural. However just as the hatch finishes marauders arrive. I send down the few roaches I have produced as well as my queen. The hatch and my units are promptly killed as the marine reinforcements arrive. He has rallied his barracks to my natural.
I produce a few zerglings and another spine crawler.
Nine minutes in I am 15 food behind, 3 workers behind and am starting to float about 500 minerals. He rushes my ramp again and am barely able to held him off. I respond by turtling up with 6 spine crawlers along my ramp.
Later I do manage to push him out but reinforcements arrive and rip me apart. I gg and leave
---------------------------------------
Issues I see:
1) I don't know what to make of my scouting information.
2) Near the end I was starting to float a lot of minerals. I tried to throw down some extra hatches but it did not help as much as I hoped it would.
3) I was late with the expand. I usually aim for about 4 minutes, this one was at 5:15 or so. That extra 75 seconds might have allowed me to keep it and prevented the siege that followed.
4) I was constantly behind in the worker count. I need more drones. Previously I had been losing because I had made to many and scaled back. I fear I may have scaled back to far.
Replay Link: http://replayfu.com/r/FVDLVj
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Game #2 ZvP
+ Show Spoiler +
This one went a little better but in watching the replay I see that I still had some major problems. Specifically drone production, which is bad when I am working on improving my macro.
So the match starts off. I know he is Protoss don't feel like I need to 10 pool for defense. I scout and see that we are at cross positions. I also see two gateways and a zealot. I have heard of the 2 gate rush so again I am on the defensive. I send out overlords to watch attack paths. I see a single zelot scout come up but it was denied. He was 4 zerglings and a queen. By this time my roach warren is finished because I saw zealots and can't have them killing all my zerglings.
It is now seven minutes into the game and he has expanded and I have not. He is also 3 workers ahead of me.
He pushes with 6 zealots, I defend with zerglings and roaches successfully. Thinking I might have the advantage I counter attack. I see he has his natural up and after taking care of some stalkers I target it. Ass of his workers there are dead however he repels me with some newly warped in stalkers and saves his expo. Now he is 8 workers ahead of me but I have a lot more units. At the time I did not know this, I was a little to timid to push.
The game continues in this fashion, I try to grab more expos while still being low on workers. He grabs one and I manage to destroy it but at the end he has twice as many workers as me and runs into my base with void rays. I have little AA. He wins.
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Issues
1) My drone production was extremely low. It really hurt me.
2) My expo was much later than it should have been, several minutes late.
3) I did not push when I should have known I had the advantage. Know that he had expanded twice, his attacks were lacking and I should have pushed to try to regain some economic advantage.
Replay Link: http://replayfu.com/r/Cs7RBp
So the match starts off. I know he is Protoss don't feel like I need to 10 pool for defense. I scout and see that we are at cross positions. I also see two gateways and a zealot. I have heard of the 2 gate rush so again I am on the defensive. I send out overlords to watch attack paths. I see a single zelot scout come up but it was denied. He was 4 zerglings and a queen. By this time my roach warren is finished because I saw zealots and can't have them killing all my zerglings.
It is now seven minutes into the game and he has expanded and I have not. He is also 3 workers ahead of me.
He pushes with 6 zealots, I defend with zerglings and roaches successfully. Thinking I might have the advantage I counter attack. I see he has his natural up and after taking care of some stalkers I target it. Ass of his workers there are dead however he repels me with some newly warped in stalkers and saves his expo. Now he is 8 workers ahead of me but I have a lot more units. At the time I did not know this, I was a little to timid to push.
The game continues in this fashion, I try to grab more expos while still being low on workers. He grabs one and I manage to destroy it but at the end he has twice as many workers as me and runs into my base with void rays. I have little AA. He wins.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issues
1) My drone production was extremely low. It really hurt me.
2) My expo was much later than it should have been, several minutes late.
3) I did not push when I should have known I had the advantage. Know that he had expanded twice, his attacks were lacking and I should have pushed to try to regain some economic advantage.
Replay Link: http://replayfu.com/r/Cs7RBp
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All in all my macro is weak. I need more drones and need to expand more aggressively while employing just enough defense to get by. Over producing units and then doing nothing with them is hurting me economically. I also float too much money too often. Earlier gas may help here. I will spend some time in the build order tester to try to get my timings down so I can expand without delay.
If you see anything wrong with my analysis or if you took time out of your day to watch the replays please post a comment about it. I am still very green and don't know what to look for yet.
In other news I am back home for the summer and I own a Wii. My family has been capitalizing on it's ability to stream movies through netflix onto the large LCD tv we have. This is not good for lag. Thank God that my sleep schedule is so radically different from theirs that I can play at night when they are all in bed.
Also, my uncle has an old friend and his family visiting form Ireland this week and I found a friend in his son. We are driving to the Anime Expo in L.A. tomorrow. I never really got into Anime other than Deathnote but it looks like a grand old time anyways. However I have to get up really really early to make sure we get there at a reasonable hour. I hope it's worth it.
Until Next Time,
-=Hyyde=-
