EPTA bit of background:
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I recently shuffled around a bit regarding my main race. Let me give you a little background: I played BW casually as protoss, but never really got into ICCUP (I tried it, but was stuck as D). With the release of SC2, I decided to go full boar on the 1v1 ladder and I naturally chose protoss as my race to do it. At the end of season one, I was in mid-diamond. I was very pleased with this ranking, but I was in denial. The truth of the matter is, I sucked. I knew that I wasn't good at the game at all, and that the only reason I was in diamond is because I played protoss. I'm not saying protoss is OP or anything, I'm just saying that it is much easier to play at a higher level with them than it is any other race (that doesn't mean that all diamond + protosses suck, I just knew that I did).
Anyway, with season 2 just around the corner, I decided to try my hand at another race, as I wanted to get legitimately good at this game. I have always loved siege tanks, so I figured I'd give terran a go. Gah, I hated it from the start. There were just too many tech paths, and I felt like it was up to me to dictate how the game was to be played out, which I didn't like. I just felt uncomfortable, and I knew that I equally sucked at Terran. I played like 3 or 4 ladder games, and didn't play for the rest of Season 2. I watched NASL, IPL, MLG, etc. religiously though, and felt like I had a great understanding of the game. I just didn't have the ability to transfer that knowledge into skill in the game. I still had the desire to play on ladder, but I had been out of the game for a few months, and I knew that trying to get back in the swing of things would be a rough challenge.
Then season 3 came along. I figured the longer I waited to get back into ladder, the harder it would be. But the question still remained: what race to play? With protoss, I felt like I could never develop any real skill at the game, but with terran, I just felt uncomfortable and knew they would never fit me. I had never had the desire to play zerg, as I knew that they were hardest to learn, and they just seemed so different from my comfortable protoss styles, that I didn't think they would work well. But as I thought about it, I realized that the high learning curve and skill ceiling of Zerg would be exactly what I needed to become a truly skilled Starcraft 2 player. I made up my mind: I was going to play Zerg.
Anyway, with season 2 just around the corner, I decided to try my hand at another race, as I wanted to get legitimately good at this game. I have always loved siege tanks, so I figured I'd give terran a go. Gah, I hated it from the start. There were just too many tech paths, and I felt like it was up to me to dictate how the game was to be played out, which I didn't like. I just felt uncomfortable, and I knew that I equally sucked at Terran. I played like 3 or 4 ladder games, and didn't play for the rest of Season 2. I watched NASL, IPL, MLG, etc. religiously though, and felt like I had a great understanding of the game. I just didn't have the ability to transfer that knowledge into skill in the game. I still had the desire to play on ladder, but I had been out of the game for a few months, and I knew that trying to get back in the swing of things would be a rough challenge.
Then season 3 came along. I figured the longer I waited to get back into ladder, the harder it would be. But the question still remained: what race to play? With protoss, I felt like I could never develop any real skill at the game, but with terran, I just felt uncomfortable and knew they would never fit me. I had never had the desire to play zerg, as I knew that they were hardest to learn, and they just seemed so different from my comfortable protoss styles, that I didn't think they would work well. But as I thought about it, I realized that the high learning curve and skill ceiling of Zerg would be exactly what I needed to become a truly skilled Starcraft 2 player. I made up my mind: I was going to play Zerg.
After I decided that I wanted to play Zerg, it took me a few weeks to actually play my Season 3 placement match. I knew some general builds for zerg, but I knew that as soon as I started laddering, I would face a slew of strategies that would catch me off guard and just destroy me. I had major ladder anxiety. I'm still not totally sure how I overcame it, but one day I woke up and played 10 games straight. It felt like trying on new shoes for the first time, trying to figure out the nuances and styles that I needed to incorporate into my play to win. I lost 9 of my first 10. Dammit.
But all was not lost. Although my first 3 or 4 losses were just rofl-worthy, I did notice I was improving. I was actually remembering to get ling speed, remembering to build overlords, and remembering to hit my injects. They were baby steps, but I was getting better. I also knew that I had to keep playing every day to continue to improve. A few losses later and I'm demoted to platinum. While many would be distraught by this, I knew that this was actually helpful for me. I couldn't try to learn the basics of this race against diamond players who have already begun to master their races. I kept losing, but I kept improving, and the losses kept getting closer and closer. And then I won a few. After 20 games I was 3-17.
I kept track of all of my games in a spreadsheet, and wrote detailed notes of all of my flaws each game. Mostly, they were failure to macro well (missing injects, pisspoor creep-spread, overdroning, underdroning, etc.). I focused entirely on these areas, and began to improve. And then it happened.
A 3 game win streak. I felt like freaking Nestea. My macro was finally coming together, and I had the basics of the race down. After 30 games (8-22), I had general ideas of how each of the matchups would go. I had basic timings and unit compisitions down. I continued to fine-tune these ideas over the next ten games, and found myself 12-28 after 40 games. I was actually gaining some ground in Platinum, and was playing better and better players, and playing them closer and closer. I finally got a winning record (6-4) in the last 10 games I played, ending my first 50 games with a 18-32 record. Not too bad after just switching races and losing 9 of my first 10.
The first 50 games took 2 weeks, and I'm focused on keeping up that pace of 3 or 4 games a day. I'm continuing to notice improvement, and am excited to see what the future holds for me. I'm currently 30th in Platinum, and am sure that within the next month or two I'll make it back up to Diamond. I finally feel like I have skill at this game, even though it isn't very much yet. I know that it's only going to keep growing and growing though. I'm excited :3
Hope you enjoyed, now back to laddering ~
