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Some may say the first day of a new season is painful.
The realization that when summer ends, winter is approaching with evenings of shoveling snow, slipping on ice or taking your best gal to the local outdoor rink for a skate (this is only painful because you realize that your gf eats up time spent on sc2).
With the end of winter comes a sort of lull where you are just dreaming of warm weather and beaches, and of suntanned broads laying on them. While your waiting you look outside to find that the earth is saugy and streets are dirty; your car is hella-dirtied by road salt stains and you find all the garbage beside your home that you thought would be buried forever by snow but ultimately, was not.
Now theres a new changing of seasons in my world. One where I progress from season to season in SC2. One where when the ladder is locked (most like summer time for low level players), and you can feel free to stop playing a structured game and maybe roll a new race and give away your hard earned ladder points from the previous season.
The end of season 2, my first season in SC2, brought tidings of joy for me and also forced me to only speculate where i stood among the ranks of SC2 players in the NA region. I had played in the gold league for all of my SC2 season 2 career and after playing with a record of somewhere around 36-21, I felt like I was improving greatly and may even be able to hit platinum when season 3 rolled around.
I was wrong.
Today, I played my placement match. T'was a PvT (I play toss for the record) and long story short, I won. I felt like i played preety good considering it was the first match of the day but apparently blizzard felt differently about my style of play as I was then placed in silver league....the lowly silver league...!
I have never made a blog before and I'm not sure what I expect to come from this. Hopefully somebody read my sob story and can relate/sympathize with/for me. I am doing this to reach out to the TL community and I want to gauge my chances of ever reaching my goal of being a diamond league 1v1 player.
This is my first RTS game and maybe I am just not cut out for this. I think maybe I need a coach/mentor/solid BO's to get me over this hump. I love this game but i love competition even more. I want to, sorry, I strive to be the best I can be at whatever I do and I'm beginning to realize I can not do this on my own. I need mentorship. I've always been good at following instructions and know that with proper training I can get there.
I've searched free cooaching on TL and find alot of terran coaches or dead coaching sites with rosters of people no longer playing.
I am going to post a replay from each matchup and feel free to carve me and drill my play. I'm going to post only wins as that is where i feel i should start to look. I feel like losses come from supply blocks and bad decisions.
Please someone read/critique my play and feel free direct to a solid protoss coach. Or, tell me if coaching will do me no good as I am just too much of a newb.
PvP: http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=223406
PvZ: http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=223410
PvT: http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=223407
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Don't let this get you down. There are several factors here.
1. As the seasons progress, the more casual players will start to fade away, making the average player slightly better over time. Also, players are getting better in general. For example, diamond league players now are a bit better than diamond league players 6 months ago.
2. I guarantee that you can make it to diamond league if you practice your mechanics, and think about and study the game between playing.
3. You don't need a coach. Post your replays asking for help, as you just did, and people will give you advice. Discuss the game with friends, on bnet chat, or in the strategy forum. Watch pro matches and pay attention to why they do what they do. Find a practice partner if possible. They are really useful for analyzing your play and helping you fix mistakes in your game.
Good luck.
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I watched all of them here are my thoughts.
PvP + Show Spoiler + Personally I like to put my first pylon near my ramp so no probes can sneak in without me knowing. This is just preference though and something to consider.
When you scout in PvP a major thing to look for is gas timings. Also it is ok to shift que a few moves with your scout while you do something in your main.
Also make sure to scout inside your base with a probe/first stalker at some point nobody likes losing to in base pylons.
Hotkey your Cyber Core, this will help you get WG research slightly faster. I hotkey it to what I hotkey my robo to so I juts overwrite the hotkey with my robo later on.
Since you were going for tech I would get your 2nd gas earlier, like 17-18 supply after you make your core
Scouting your opponents ramp and seeing their unit composition at around 5 minutes can tell you a lot about what build they are going. Count their sentries and zealots see how much gas they are spending etc.
Immortals take a lot of supply, anticipate your robo finishing and start that pylon early. Same goes for WG research prepare for the influx in supply with an earlier pylon.
Always make an observer immediately after your immortal in case of DT and to see what your opponent is doing. I sometimes make 2 if I suspect they may be getting DTs
You made a nexus without scouting him, This is extremely risky, make sure you know what they are up to before expanding.
In PvP it is also wise to at some point send a probe to every base on the map as lots of players like to hide bases in pvp
You got blink early but did not use it. Feel free to scout/harass with your blink stakers as it gives you map control, pretend they are mutalisks, pick off stray pylons and such, Bring an observer with them so you can blink up cliffs if you need to. Also charge is usually good to get if you are going gateway heavy.
I typed this as I was watching it so I saw you did blink harass later but you could have started a bit earlier I feel. Also keep your stalkers on a separate hotkey so you can get them out of bad situations quickly.
You saw he had a forge and that he was going for upgrades. Generally you want to stay even or ahead of your opponent on upgrades since they make a huge difference in mirror match ups. Also you can blink back the weakened stalkers so that is something you should try and practice
Overall improve on your scouting and make your builds a bit more refined.
PvT
+ Show Spoiler + Keep your scouting probe alive to patrol outside of his base and see when he moves out. Also you can poke up his ramp and count his marines/marauders and see if he is spending his gas.\
Make 2 observers. You should always have one with your army in case of cloaked banshees and the like. Also it is good to have an observer spotting for drops. You made a 2nd one later which is good, but you left it next to a cannon which is unnecessary I would keep it with your army or spotting drops
You didn’t use your forge until a while after you got it. If you are gonna get it use it right away otherwise delay it. This isn’t too big of a deal but it will help.
I personally hate colossus vs terran. They are too easily killed by marauders and Vikings. I would encourage you to mess around with 2 forges pumping upgrades and gateway units with HT. Mainly zealots as HT cost gas.
Keep scouting all game long to see how many units they have and what types.
If you get a forge get upgrades dood! In PvT upgrades are good to get because you can chronoboost them and stay ahead on upgrades all game long.
ALWAYS use guardian shield vs terran, it makes a huge difference especially against marines. Just use 1-2.
Rofl at manner nexus
Overall. Upgrades and scouting. Also use chrono boost on probes more
PvZ + Show Spoiler +
Generally it is better to make your gateway on the outside so roaches cant snipe your zealot if there is an overlord to spot.
Vs Zerg scout their natural first then main bases so you can try and delay the hatch and see when it goes down.
You didn’t need to chronoboost your first zealot as you saw no lings were on the way. Start warpgate research before your sentry. If you plan on making sentries its probably better to get 2 gas slightly earlier. When I 3 gate expand I get it around 20 supply. I can get 3 sentries and a zealot out before warpgate finishes.
Hide a probe on the map before ling speed is done so that you can scout for a 3rd base. Once ling speed is done the map belongs to zerg.
I feel you played a bit greedy and didn’t make enough units/cannons when you expanded before your stargate, but sometimes risks pay off.
Don’t chrono boost warpgates unless you are attacking or defending. It is better to use it on probes.
Also get hallucinate it allows for great scouting all game long.
I think you should have made your cannon a bit earlier in case of burrow. On meta if you are close by air you can make a pylon in the top corner of your main and its basically a proxy pylon if you warp on the low ground, you kind of did this but not as effectively as it could have been.
HOTKEY YOUR ARMY! Also it may be wise you have your void ray hotkeyed separate as well. At least in 2 groups 1 by itself so you can micro is back easily.
Scout for a 3rd base from zerg
When attacking zerg’s natural ALWAYS forcefield their ramp right away. it makes a huge difference when they can only reinforce from 1 base.
Guardian shield helps vs roaches
Overall scouting and opener was a little weird and risky.
Let me know if you have any questions
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Well I'm currently in Bronze. I still haven't played my placement match(I wanna make sure I'm ready). Just hit me up if you wanna play some practice games.
downmaster.711
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thanks for the feeedback!
all good suggestions but as for refining builds go I have always wondered which opener to do for each matchup. i have yet to sit down with one build cuz when you go to liquipedia theres honestly just too many different ones there.
also alot of the builds i find on forums are maybe too advanced for me?
Any suggestions on this?
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On July 28 2011 09:00 GeeRobb wrote: thanks for the feeedback!
all good suggestions but as for refining builds go I have always wondered which opener to do for each matchup. i have yet to sit down with one build cuz when you go to liquipedia theres honestly just too many different ones there.
also alot of the builds i find on forums are maybe too advanced for me?
Any suggestions on this?
These are some simple yet effective builds I use. PvZ 3 gate sentry expand/Forge fe PvP 3 gate robo is good into colo or blink, you just did it a bit weird PvT I like 1 gate expand or 3 gate expand depending how safe I feel.You can add a robo after you expand if you sense banshees/
Let me know if you want some replays.
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No build is "too advanced". Just practice it until you get is right. It took a while to do a good fast hellion build for TvZ. It may seem that it's too advanced, but it seems it may be due to the fact that your mechanics may not be up to par. Just try to find a build that suits your play style.
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if you wouldnt mind the replays would help me out a lot!
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On July 28 2011 09:29 GeeRobb wrote: if you wouldnt mind the replays would help me out a lot!
Sure PM me your email address and I will send you the files, I am not a fan of uploading to public websites without my opponents permission That may sound weird haha.
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Well if being in silver makes you sad, you can always 4 gate your way to at least gold in PvZ and PvP. (this simple BO got me from silver to platinum when I used it in all PvZ and PvP)
4 Gate poosh + Show Spoiler +9 pylon (Chrono boost 11th probe) 12 gate (Chrono boost 13th probe) 14 gas 15 or 16 pylon Cyber when gateway finishes. Warp gate immediately after core finishes, spend all chrono boost on warp gate.
Zealot and then stalker then another stalker out of gateway, while cutting probes at 20. This will leave you at 26/26 food. Build 3 gateways after first stalker out of gateway. Build another pylon, then push out towards his base with the zealot, stalkers, and a probe, building a pylon somewhere near it. Turn gateways into warp gates and warp in whatever you have money for (stalkers and zealots) Attack till he dies. This might not get you to diamond, but in the lower leagues will wreck any zergs or protoss, and is still a viable PvP build at all levels.
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