Ladder Blog #13

Watching Perfective (was that his name? Yeah, it was) go all in mutaling against Fantasy and have it BARELY defended (yeah, was rootin for KT. I'm an OZ fan but they're not doing so well) by some epic play by Fantasy over and over again. Bisu's easy looking all-in defense. I admit I skipped s2 vs Hoejja :p. Anti-queen ez win By.Sun (see what I did there?).

Best vs Flash was freakin amazing. Flash's fast push was so sick. You do not see anything like that in SC2. And then Stats vs n.Die_soO. Stats was up by SO MANY BASES but soO kept throwing units at him and for a moment, it looked like he might have a chance. Eventually, he lost but it was definitely a really exciting game.

And then the final game. Flash made it look SO EASY. I mean HE IS SOOOOO GOOD. There isn't even a way to describe it. I saw the mass gateways from Best and was like OHHHHHH! Then I saw the mass factory from Flash and was like OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH! You just can't see such a game like that in SC2. With the hyper effecient tank defense taking four bases. I don't think anyone other than Flash would be able to do it. It was soooo sick. It got my so hyped to improve, in a way that watching SC2 just doesn't provide for me.

I've experimented around with various timings of the gas. First thing I tried was a quick 2 gas right after pool. Turns out that I have wayyy too much gas and can't spend it. Later on, I tried a bit of a delayed two gas, after I get a few more drones up, I still ended up with too much gas. It builds up too quickly and I don't have a real use for it. I think the reason for this is the Starcraft 2 gas mechanic. There's two gasses, but they give the same amount as 1 gas in Starcraft 1. This means I need to have twice the amount of drones off of minerals put in gas. Thus, my gas SEEMS to rise a lot quicker, when in reality, it's just that I'm getting fewer minerals.

Eventually, I settled on Ret's timing, where you get it around when the pool's finished, and then add two gas around when the lair's halfway done. Get the fourth gas when spire's going up. This gets a good econ going so I can save up for mutas, while still getting them out pretty fast. I can also make a task force of speedlings to defend any pesky marine attack.

First time I got this timing down, I felt pretty good. My harass wasn't perfect but I felt like I was keeping him in base. Then this giant push comes barrelling down the middle of the map and I type out right away. I think I need to get the baneling transition sooner. Maybe start researching burrow as soon as the mutas pop, and bane nest soon after. Anyway, I need more practice with it.

I think one problem with the build is turrets. SC2 turrets are a lot more robust and deal a lot more damage than SC1 turrets. Plus, repair bugs out a LOT less than in SC1 so scvs can surround a turret fast and repair for all eternity. In SC1, you could usually get a max of 3 or 4 scvs on a turret when it was being hit by mutas. The uber sc2 turrets aren't just a delaying tool like in SC1, but a solid defense, so mutas aren't as good at keeping him in base.

Also, I've come to a conclusion that every new ladder map except nerazim crypt is imbalanced against Zerg. I'm not raging, I just came to this conclusion after thinking through things a lot.

Searing Crater and Abyssal was talked about in SOTG. Antiga Shipyard, ohhh man. I knew tanks would be killer on this map ever since it first came out. Trust me, I'm a mapper. I get paid (well I don't get paid) to think about imbalances on maps. I'll talk about this particular game later.

I've been dying to try out Nestea's 10 pool opening. Unfortunately, it only works on 2 or 3 player maps. There is a total of ONE 2 player map and ONE three player map (Shakuras technically is one). That means I don't really get many chances. I'm still doing my 14/14 as a result. But I saw the other Nestea game that I missed on Tal'Darim. It seems he's going 15 hatch every game that he doesn't go 10 pool.

Now at this point, I'd REALLY appreciate a Day9 daily on this. There's so much going on that I don't really understand fully. There's so basic concepts that are obvious but drone timings and attack timings are really kind of hard for me to get. So if Day9, you're reading this, please do Losira vs Nestea on Tal'Darim. Please.

Okay, so despite the replays about 5 hatch before gas that I was told about, NONE OF THEM were actually 5 hatch before gas. Which kind of confuses me.

I've had to deal with some blink 4 gate (lol), and that's about it I think. I haven't played many Tosses lately. It's my best matchup already so I don't really mind at this point.