EPT1. Advance in the prequalifying round provided the competition in my division did not contain more than one masters level or higher player.
2. Use the large skill gap between myself and plat or higher players to identify the most glaring weakness in my gameplay in order to focus my limited playtime to achieve the fastest improvement in overall skill.
As I mentioned in my previous blog, I did advance to the qualifying round and faced some major competition in that all of my opponents that showed up for matches were masters level players with one diamond level terran.
As expected I did not advance to the next round, but I astonished myself after five 0-2 losses to masters level players by winning my first in a bo3 against a high masters level zerg player. Despite the fact that he played way too greedy on Shakuras Plateau, I still executed my build well, macro'd efficiently, and had decent enough army control to take game 1. I did lose the final two matches and I am not so naive to think I am masters level because I won one out of three matches against my weakest matchup (PvZ), but I am nonetheless proud of myself and motivated to play more of my matches with that same level of execution and reaction timing.
I was also told by one of the Masters level Terran players that a little work on my macro skills will easily get me into diamond league in no time.
One of the Masters Level Protoss players said that my 4gate needed to be more crisp (which I knew already, but was able to refine a bit by watching the replays) and I needed a lot of work on my stalker micro, which I also already knew as I have not really focused on that yet.
I also learned that Masters Level players cheese about as often as bronze leaguers. I was shocked to get cannon rushed multiple times and saw my first ever marine scv all-in. I also learned how strong a well executed roach-ling all-in is when executed at the proper timings.
In addition to everything I learned from this tournament, as mentioned before, I was promoted to Gold at the beginning of season 3. Well, I also finally reached 250 wins as Protoss. I'm not sure if it's feasible based on my progress of going from bronze to gold in 240 wins to have a realistic chance of hitting diamond by 500 wins, but that I think will be my next goal...just not sure how the whole MMR system and promotions work within my activity level/skill progression.
Interestingly enough, I was beginning to be paired up with several platinum players on the ladder, and then all of the sudden I hit a streak of silver leaguers as well. My win rate against gold/plat is still around 55%, and my win rate against the silver leaguers is still above 80%, so I'm guessing my MMR is in a pretty volatile place right now.
As much as I had wanted to hold off on my micro skills until I hit diamondish level, it appears that it is my biggest limitation when I execute my builds properly in PvP. I very rarely go for blink stalkers, but when I do, I know "how" to micro them, probably could work on execution, though. Anyone have any good links/resources for the mechanics of stalker kiting? That's where I think I need the most work. I know I can load some of the custom unit test maps to practice...just not sure on the mechanics of it to be honest.
Other than that, I know I have to continue refining my builds and macro macro macro. I plan on doing some of the "Macro or Die" maps to build up those skills...just wish there were like 4 more hours in a day cause I know time is probably the biggest limiting factor in my skill progression.
Back to the daily grind.
Just keep on playing and you will find yourself in masters soon.
