EPTFirst I should probably introduce myself.. my name is James and I'm a terran sc2 player and former orc wc3 player. Infact I was once called the best 50% orc in all of US west (the most illustrious of all realms)!
So how good is a 50% orc at sc2?.. well I am currently 1054 points in my NA master division. Because that will be meaningless in a few weeks I should also mention I am currently rank 2 and, sure enough, a 52% win rate.
This blog will serve mainly too chart my progress as a sc2 player for my benefit primarily but maybe someone else may find this itneresting. This entry will henceforth be about where I am at now, in terms of sc2, and where I have come from. So lets get into it.
During the first semester of my second year at uni sc2 beta dropped (byebye education). I started playing a few weeks into the beta when a wc3 friend got a key, he let me share it and I ended up playing many times more games than him (thanks mikey <3). I played mainly protoss (otherwise known as bestracetoss) and I think I have 1000 or so replays of sc2 during the beta, most of which probably involve 3 gates and a robo being built (seriously this build was the shit).
Once release rolled around I had finally settled on a race.. zerg. Everything was going fine, what with the injecting and makeing drones so when a lan tourney came up I was very eager. Out of 50 or so competitors I got knocked out in the round of 6 (yes, round of 6, the tournament organisers werent the most experienced to put it kindly) by a formidable (at making voidrays) protoss player, nonoken, who later went on to take out 1st place and the ~$150 prize. The experience was worth it though as I still practice with Nonoken to this day !
So.. I keep playing zerg and another lan tournament comes around, in the group phase I beat several players but lost to finest, the eventual winner, and a gold league protoss player. At this point I should mention I have been in the highest league since beta (excluding GM). The sneaky protoss player had made 2 gates and a stargate, luckily I sacced an ovy and saw the stargate warping in, unluckily I assumed it was a gateway and didnt click it (I am obviously very good at this game). So, violating my always make 3 queens rule, I lost in humiliating fashion.
Somewhere between this tournament and the next one (they were probably about 6 months apart) I switched to terran. Then to protoss, then to zerg then back to terran where I have stayed ever since. This time I made it out of the group phase where once more I was matched against nonoken, haveing a winning record vs him in practice I was feeling confident. The first game he opted for a double robo push (they were all the rage back then!) and I barely held takeing game 1. In game 2 he managed to tie it up 1-1. Game 3 was on shakuras and I opted for a gasless expand protected by 3 bunkers but, like all protoss, he is a tricky, sneaky, devious player and disregarded the bunkers with a blink stalker all in, sealing my fate and advancing to the next round a 2-1 victor.
Some time after that I played in a small online tournament where I won my first prize of $50. The protoss I was up against played similar for 4 of the games (he changed it up in the last game) where he went for a very strong 2 base timing with a few collosus and mainly gateway units. I came back from a 0-2 deficit to win 3-2. It was exhilerating, especially winning 3 straight games, I think I learned alot as a player from that series.
That is most of my tournament history to date, I have participated in a few team leagues so have played quite a few clan wars. With my old team gTa that consisted of friends and managed by me and a friend (shoutout to amd_ ). Because most of the members lost interest and went inactive we disbanded it. Then I joined Team Skynet or skyz (managed by beast) and performed pretty well in wars.
So.. I figured I should end on some graphs, bitches loves graphs.
These are from sc2gears and based off about 2000 replays I started using sc2gears and saveing replays soemtime after I switched to terran. Unfortunately there is a massive gap where I deleted a whole bunch of replays (I estimate in total i have played about 5000 games of sc2). For the 2 months before I started saving replays again I didnt play any games due to exams and a trip to europe so that explains why my average apm went down after my return. Dont worry though Since season 3 started I have played about 500 games so im still massing games and Im still bad.
I like this one because it shows how atleast one aspect (apm) of my play has improved over time. Dotted line means there are no replays for that period.
![[image loading]](http://www.iforce.co.nz/View.aspx?i=fhtf2df4.v4d.jpg)
Showing that I am a truly 50% player!
![[image loading]](http://www.iforce.co.nz/View.aspx?i=mm12sn3m.0fz.jpg)
Apparently I cant win games before 10 minutes T.T I blame those pesky protoss players!
![[image loading]](http://www.iforce.co.nz/View.aspx?i=5yssymp5.jy4.jpg)
This was way longer than I thought it would be, if you made it this far.. I pity you.
