EPTAll of a sudden I hit a winning streak and advanced my MatchMaking Rating from high Diamond into the low Masters level. The change feels big. Players play differently here in Masters. I’m still officially in Diamond league but I’m currently getting matched against 50% Masters and 50% top 8 Diamonds.
Last week I promised to play more games. I’ve succeeded, playing 154 games overall, which gives a 22 games per day average. This is pretty much as high as I can go, if I also want to sleep, analyze replays and go out 1-3 times per week to do shopping or hang out with friends.
I’ve had comments saying that pro players play about 30 games per day and I should play at least as much as them to get as good as them. It makes logical sense, but is actually wrong from my personal experience.
You see, pros are in a very different learning stage than me. They don’t see too many new things in their games. They don’t need to analyze and figure out as much as me in the low masters. Therefore they can just hit the ladder button straight away for another game, while I almost never do that. I spend about 5-10 minutes minimum after a game, to think about it, let the experience soak in and tension soak out.
Special thanks to SIV, an awesome protoss player with whom I played ladder 4 times. It’s insane how many times we can get matched up.
Played 55 ZvZs overall with 69% win ratio. I continue to kick Diamond ass with my Speedling pressure -> Baneling defense and expand opening style. However in Masters League I might need to re-invent my ZvZ as Master players seem to handle my style exceptionally well. They can defend cost-effectively with spines and roaches and get way ahead of me in drones. I don’t yet know what to do in ZvZ against low/mid Master. I might drop into a 30-40% win ratio as I figure out a new style in the next weeks.
Played 47 ZvPs overall with 40% win ratio. I had a bad losing streak as I was figuring out new strategy and integrating baneling drops into my play. Now however I expect this % to increase, maybe even above 50 ;-) as I’m getting better and better in this matchup.
Played 39 ZvTs overall with 48% win ratio. This actually doesn’t accurately represent my current state, because in the beginning of the week I had a losing streak, but then I pimped up my macro and I’m dealing with Diamond Terrans very well. I was even outplaying Master Terrans, looking really strong in this matchup. Infestors are helping me out a lot against Terran’s 2-base pushes. I really feel like making 6-8 mutas and then doing Infestors works better for me than mass Muta. Perhaps it’s because low Master Terrans can’t really split their marines to dodge fungals? Or my Muta control is too bad to make mass Mutas viable…
Anyway, at Saturday I got sick and stopped playing for 3 days. Now it’s Tuesday and I’m slowly getting back in da bizness. Not the most productive week in the world coming up, but I also know that a 3-day break can by itself be very, very productive. It gives my brain time to subconsciously zoom out and see the big picture. I’m sure there’s a promotion waiting for me, hiding right around the corner!
Oh, oh, I almost forgot. Check out this kick-ass Day[9] FFA Funday Sunday. This game is ridiculous, I had tons of fun watching it!
http://blip.tv/file/5674148
