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So, Seaon 3 ends, I'm still plat, but was probably off from demoting to gold by just a hair. I tilted pretty bad in this season. I sat down with a few buddies from Master league, Zerg, Terran and anyone who would give me a second. One thing that got pointed out to me by a long time practice buddy who started Master Zerg and is now Masters Terran was that I'm playing build vs build far too much.
To explain what I mean, I want to point out what I was NOT doing first; I was NOT playing MUs. I was getting super obsessed about having 100% scouting, knowing what the opponent is doing at all times and reacting to EVERYTHING. Like, every time I scouted ANYTHING, I'd try to tech to something, or build something, or attack something, based on what 'build' the opponent was doing.
That's both not necessary and really bad. Playing a ZvT, for example, you need to have a basic game plan and build going in and sure, if you end up seeing that Terran is someone just hard-countering your build, for sure make some changes, but you can't be totally rewriting your build every 30 seconds based on what Terran's doing. Your in-game adjustments need to be WAY smaller than that.
So, I've been trying to remake my thought process. Instead of trying to totally change what I have every time I scout something, I'm trying to change more of just what I'm doing with what I have, and maybe changing my tempo or timing based on scouting, such as getting a certain upgrade or tech faster or later, but NOT changing my whole strategy.
So, I'm taking a little time to practice this and get my head in the game before I start season 4, but hopefully I can finish Season 4 at least mid-to-top Plat. Diamond would be cool, but I need to solidify my skill before I can really push it too much, I think.
 
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On October 30 2011 01:00 Jathin wrote:
Learn 1 build for each matchup, and master it. The only time you should deviate from your build is if you see something completely game-changing (all-ins). If I were Zerg I'd learn a defensive roach into muta/bling/sling build, which is safest in ZvT.
I switched from Toss to Zerg and fell down into plat again, and if you'd ask me I would recommend a Roach/Hydra build since its more 1a and less 1a-2a-Mutaharrass. So it would be easier and in this league's roach hydra is pretty potent since forcefields are being placed wrong or not at all, and siege tanks will target roaches instead of hydras. That means Hydras are pretty potent.
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i dont think that "harcountering" plays a role until you hist masters...lets be honest you can win alot of games by doing reasonable stuff and "abusing" your mechanics.
i would suggest using builds that involve lings and roaches to clear up early pushes. why? because its straightforward and you already have roaches against hellion shenanigans.
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Hello!
let me tell you something that may be slightly embarrasing for me, but here goes:
When I was in low to mid masters, I did only one thing: I memorized a build per match-up, played that like a hundred times on YABOT until I was able to execute it blindly and then took it into the ladder, where I played it again - blindly.
I played 3Gate-Sentry-Expand and did not care for what the Zerg was doing, I macroed up, got my Deathball and A-Moved happily to another 13 points. If that didn't work, then "stuff happened" - I got killed by banelings, Roaches and Speedlings busted my expansion, Banelings got dropped on my head, Infestors started to rise (I hate you, Steven) and so on and so forth. What I want to say is: I died to all of that stuff for the first 10, 15, 20 or even 30 times until I realized whats neccesary to be done. While I just used to stick to my plan and throw up my robo bay blindly I suddenly realized that cannons are a good investments, five gates are a good idea or whatever. I would go that far to say that losses are calculated in your growth as a player, because no guide will ever be able to tell you every small nuisance of a match-up, you will fall flat on your face, you will get bruises and you will hate it, but with every slap you're receiving, you actually start to flesh out solutions - after the game, where such growth belongs, not in the game.
And those solutions will come to you easily sooner or later. What I mean by this is that you should not have the time to overthink critical things during a game, its far to quick for that. If you are wondering, if it would be a good idea to get 3, 5 or 7 corruptors against the 2/3/4 colossi of your opponent, then you will end up with 2 corruptors, 2 bases and 5000 overmins. But if you just pull trough and say "Screw it, 7 Corruptors" then you might die because you overmade corruptors - but you can scrap out one wrong decision and try something different next time - with full dedication and without losing your mechanics.
Don't be a deer in front of a car, whatever you do, do it, because if you shiver in fear whenever you scout something, then you will never really get any experience (Because lets face it, you won't grow when you flat out die to lets say a 7gate with 2000 minerals on the bank while you couldn't decide if you should invest in lings or spines - but if you decide "Pure Lings", pump all your minerals into it and then realize "Wait a second, there are zealots in this game", then you will know better the next time it happens).
Don't be scared to make decisions and be grateful whenever you gave your best and realized that some things just don't work. And to be perfectly honest I only started to actively react to my opponents moves when I hitted Grand Masters, so don't fall in that wrong sense of "I need to react always and every time to be a good player" - if you don't believe me then watch some prostreams and keep a close look on how much they actually know and how actively they scout ^^
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I recently switched to zerg for a month and did decent in diamond but, now, I decide that the it's not the race for me
From a month of experience, you only need to know one build and a bit of variation for each match up to get into diamond. You will never have a perfect information as zerg (that's why I play terran  ), so you need a build that is adaptable to anything. I don't mean that you will need one of each unit, as that would be suicidal. For example, you should build an evolution chamber around 6:00 in zvp to get upgrade and a spore crawler if needed. In zvz, if you are not opening with heavy roaches, it's ideal to get a safety baneling nest around 4:45. Those plays do not deviate you from your main strategy and will prepare you for most of what your opponent can throw at you. Still sometimes you will need to change your play to counter some play styles. For instance, if a terran goes mech, you will need to build a lot of roaches (but that's way simpler than muta, ling, baneling, right? ), and if a protoss builds ton of immortal to counter your roaches, you will need to add some hydra to your composition.
Here are some guilds that helped me during my journey to the swarm
ZvZ:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=254591
The 9 pool build is awesome, because it can potentially do terrible damage and makes you safe against any type of cheese.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=199583
Hatch first usually induces a lot of aggression. This guild shows you how to hold off any early aggression and come out way ahead.
ZvT:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=278161
Early roaches lead to a safer game for zerg and allow you to put aggression on terran.
ZvP:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=259629
Delayed lair lets you build up insanely good econ early against protoss.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=224438
The "perfect unit mix" section gives you incredible information on how to react to a protoss's composition.
+ Show Spoiler +Yes!! I finally make some quality post on TL :D
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EPT
