EPTThis time I'm gonna write in two parts. The first part will be my experiences with SC2 so far, what I've learned, gained, etc. The second part will be my ideas for future games, hopes and dreams, and so on.
Feedback is appreciated for the second part!
Part 1
So. I bought the game pretty much as soon as it was released. I had played -very little- on the beta, a friend helped me get in. He and I met playing DotA in WC3, and have played together in different games, he was the one who urged me to go get SC2.
At first I didnt like the idea at all, I mean, at the time I was a casual player (and you know what that means.. World of Warcraft. Bigtime.) and had no experiences whatsoever with RTS's. But my friend was (and is) very convincing, so I ended up buying it. I had actually decided on zerg before I even started playing, as they are by far the coolest race (take THAT, terran and protoss players!), and even though I did play a little bit of random, I still always preferred zerg.
The main reason I stuck with it was actually Day[9] (queue angelic trumpets). At first I had very little desire to play (beyond the single campain which was awesome, play it if you haven't). Even though the game itself seemed weird and scary, I loved watching the dailies, especially funday monday and newbie tuesday.
I guess you can say I'm the sort of player who gets excited seeing other people play. After watching the daily for a few weeks, I decided I wanted to be that passionate about starcraft, and started playing 1v1 on the ladder.
I really didn't wanna play team games, because at the moment I was pretty deep in to HoN (which is basically the pretty form of DotA) and I was so. fucking. tired. of having retards in my team. I mean one of the things I really like about SC2 is that it's only my skill that matters, so there's no "luck" or "chance" involved.
So I started playing, and I was godawful and stuff.. but I kept at it! I kept playing and playing, and watching every zerg daily Day[9] posted. Gradually I started to get better and better at it. I went from bronze to gold in just a few weeks. It took me a bit longer to get into platinum, but thats where I'm at right now. I was a bit dissappointed that I didn't get placed into diamond on the season reset, but at least I'm ranked 1 on my ladder
...
that sounded way more egotistical that it should have. I apologize.
So currently I'm playing lots of 1v1, and also some 2v2 with a friend of mine (terran). We were ranked 1 diamond before the reset, but that's basically his earning, as he is WAY better than me.
Anyways. What have I gotten from SC2?
First and foremost - I've met the single most amazing person I've come in to contact with. We actually met through Day[9], she went to dreamhack as the same time as me, to watch Day[J] and thats how I came in to contact with her. The only negative part is that she lives kind of far away, so I've only seen her during dreamhacks. Working on getting her down here
Secondly - I've been able to accept the "nerd" lifestyle. This is completly thanks to Day[J]. In a daily he talked about how being a nerd is perfectly fine, as long as it is something that you want to do. I've always loved playing computer games but always had the devil on my shoulder whispering that I need to go to parties every weekend to be succesful, or that if I don't spend every single day with a bunch of friends I'm somehow worse off.
I've learned to be proud to be a gamer, and that's an important thing. I still spend some time with friends, but I have no shame in spending a saturday evening playing starcraft.
The last thing I want to mention - improvement.
I'm a guy that has pretty few ways to measure improvement. I've always gotten good grades without much effort. The only thing really that I could improve on was playing instruments, and even then its very hard to measure day-to-day improvement.
Starcraft is different. Here we have a physical way to measure improvement. How? First of all - your position in the ladder. The ladder does -not- mention skill. But if you go from platinum to diamond you can be pretty sure that you have gotten better.
There is an even easier way - replays. If you're like me, and are simply playing to get good at the game - you're gonna save replays. Mostly replays of you losing, so that you can learn from your losses. If you take a replay from a month back and compare it to a replay you saved yesterday - you're gonna see whether you have improved or not. For me - its a constant increase. I get better and better, maybe not very fast - but I'm getting there.
It's a pretty damn good feeling to be able to say: I actually got better at this. I practiced, I played, and I improved.
With that I'm gonna wrap up part 1, and move on to part 2: My ideas and thoughts for the future.
Part 2
I'm gonna do this matchup-specific, starting with my favorite matchup : ZvT
ZvT
There's two points I want to stress here. The first is against the "normal" terran bio-ball with tank support. Against this setup, I have been using ling/bling/infestor/ultra. It has been working pretty well for me, but I have a few really good terran practice partners, who all claim that mutalisks are ESSENTIAL for this matchup, so against a bioball I'm going to start experimenting with mutas much more than I have in the past. I've tried it, and I can't say I really like it: It's extremely hard to get any good harass, but I guess they are more for map control than anything, it also transitions into brood lords easier.
Secondly, mech play are getting way popular lately, and I need a good way to deal with it. I think the best way is to get roaches instead of banelings, if you see a hellion opener. Then, you get a few extra queens and some spores, as banshees are likely coming. When you are sure to survive, tech to infestors and mutalisks. I get a few mutas to deal with drops/banshees, and build up a roach/infestor army with neural parasite. When the first attack (usually) hits, you NP the thors and kill tanks&hellions with roaches. If you survive (lol), expand like crazy and tech to brood lords, which are AWESOME against mech. I haven't used BroodLords much, but I guess this is as good time as any
ZvP
Lately I've been trying Destiny's ZvP and having HUGE success. This build is basically ling/infestor, teching to ultras pretty damn quick. You start with an 11 pool 18hatch, and drone up to 40-44 (2 base saturation) and then get all 4 gases at once (spanishiwa style!). You get infestors and burrow asap, and push with 5-6 infestors and rest lings. You burrow the infestors and use all their energy on infested terrans, then run in the lings. 90% of the time you snipe the expansion nexus, and even if you dont you usually kill the army. You double-expand behind it, and tech to hive. If the protoss is still alive, you tech to ultras for normal coloss death balls, (heh, balls) or get roaches for high templar/archon armies, while teching to brood lords.
Protip: If the protoss pushes before you do- fungal growth is INSANELY good. If he pushes before you even have infestors (gasp!) throw 3-4 spines up, and its pretty easy to hold with lings. Depends on map of course, but usually it just depends on scouting. If he does some insane cheese (proxy 2 gate for example), just build lings off your onebase 11pool, and you should hold no problem, just throw down a queen and a spine or two.
ZvZ
This is my worst matchup by far. At the moment I'm using a 14 pool into roach. Against ling/baneling I have a pretty good timing push, but against counter-roach I tech to infestors and later ultras. Which feels ugly. I don't like it, as it all comes down pure macro/micro, more than strategy. It's not too bad, but I'm still trying to find a good way to play ZvZ. An idea i had is to get burrow, and run your infestors around and snipe expansions with infested terrans, I got owned by it so it should be pretty good
Brood lords feels unreliable since they are easily countered (corruptors, which then turns in to a corruptor war), so I prefer ultras. They are pretty damn good vs roaches (coupled with fungals), which is 95% of all ZvZ.
So the rundown: I'm gonna use more muta vs terran, and brood lords vs mech terrans. I'm gonna use a ling+infestor (later ultra/roach) against protoss, and experiment with infestors in zvz. Hopefully I'll get promoted to diamond soon
Thanks for reading!
Song of the post: Under Cover Of Darkness - The Strokes
