EPTI managed to grind out a ton of games for season 3, averaging 4.6 games a day on NA server and 2.6 on KR, for a combined 7.2 games per day. In season 2 i averaged something like 3 or less; I finally got a new connection and a new laptop, so I no longer randomly disconnect or crash, which has in turn greatly increased my motivation to play.
NA matchup stats
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![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/Pr6Uo.png)
Something I find extremely frustrating is the end of each season. So far, I've consistently managed to tank 200 or more points at the end of the season relative to where I performed in the middle. I ended up with 1399 points; on the last day I tried to make the push to 1500, starting at around 1441, then dropping to 1350. I finally gave up after 30 games, stuck at 1399. It's pretty silly; I ended season 2 at 1470 with under 50% winrate, while I was still able to play pretty evenly against 1700-1800 players. Similarly I feel confident against 1500-1600+ season 3 players. Maybe with the shorter seasons I'll be able to keep up the steam all the way through season 4.
KR matchup stats
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![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/Lo0QF.png)
I managed to grind out about 200 games on KR at the diamond level, occasionally hitting a couple of masters. KR definitely feels very different from NA. Koreans are a ton more aggressive, and from my ranking matches I found even bronze-plat players have very strong mechanics compared to NA low league players. I've smurfed quite a bit on a friend's diamond account, and NA diamond players are significantly weaker; I'd put them at gold, maybe platinum if they abuse eco cheeses and allins, but micro/macro-wise they are worlds behind. It's really frustrating being stuck in KR diamond, because I've taken games off masters above rank 1000 or so, but I still constantly get outclassed mechanically by high diamonds. I feel like my micro and macro just can't compare to most of the koreans, and it's going to be a pretty long haul to bring my mechanics up to speed. I still want to be able to make it into KR masters by the end of the year, but i'm not sure how feasible it is with my operating systems and cpu deisgn classes kicking my ass.
Some memorable games I've had in season 3
- isurusShuku TvP on shakuras. proxy DT drop vs 1rax CC where I plant a turret in each mineral line and completely denies his drop. He rages, calls me a maphacker, threatens to have blizzard ban me because he "knows david kim personally"
- BloodThirsty TvZ on shakuras. first GM i've played on ladder, i end up playing kind of passively and don't push fast enough. i get him all the way back to his natural before his broodlords morph, I'm maxed on marine tank and have no vikings to deal with it, and he quickly cleans me up.
- RevZoohairZ TvZ on shakuras. he loses a big fight in the middle of the map in midgame, and floats about 3k mins. when he harasses my fourth with mutas I siege up in his natural and make some very costs efficient trades, and clean up his bottom expansions shortly afterwards. then he busts out "what a fucking joke ur trash." I found it pretty amusing because Revoki spams the USC esports facebook chat; I found he posted on their wall "i think my best match up is ZvT ..taking down GoSuPokebunny and tQWannaBe wooooot" lol.
VPainuser (now x6Painuser) 38 minute long TvT on shakuras.
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I opt for igniter hellion -> starport -> CC. He goes 1rax gas CC Fac Port. He gets a quick double factory, I take my natural about a minute later than he does.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7erjN.jpg)
He gets a quick third factory and starts his third CC, whereas I get an armory and +1 before i start my third factory and fourth factory. Now I have to deal damage and deny his third or risk falling very behind. Unfortunately he's got a pretty nice tank line in the middle.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XXQ0f.jpg)
He starts his fourth, but makes a crucial mistake and sieges up in range of my tanks.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6yNgh.jpg)
This lets me push in and force a lift at his third, but I take a lot of damage and lose two thors to his landed high ground vikings.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/nZJUU.jpg)
I contain him, but my tank line is horrifically positioned, which let him break out with ease. Now I'm real screwed, my third is lifted, his 6th is started, and i'm down 30 supply.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tEYxS.jpg)
He pulls back a bit, I reland my CC, and then I'm forced to lift it again a minute later. Then he makes a mistake that puts me back in control. I push out a little and catch 3 thors off guard. He then sends in his army piecemeal and quickly loses 40 supply for none of mine.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oqSP2.jpg)
I then use this opportunity to siege up his third and fourth, and then push all the way into his main. His battle cruisers pop in time to force all my tanks out of his main, but I've already killed all his factories.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ob209.jpg)
He rebuilds all his starports in bottom right, floats to 12 and 6, but I deny those expansions with landed vikings. I don't have enough antair though, when I try to take out his bottom right, and his battlecruisers clean up everything and start camping my factories.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/m2aKS.jpg)
However, 3 thors pop out at once, finish off his last BC, and he's forced to GG out. Definitely my most memorable game, since Painuser is fairly well known, and this was probably the last straight-up macro TvT I've played in the last 2 months. I actually thought this was a smurf because he had pretty low apm, but looking at the hotkeys and having team games with Ret I'm pretty sure this was the real painuser. It's pretty clear that he was extremely rusty when this game was played, though.
He gets a quick third factory and starts his third CC, whereas I get an armory and +1 before i start my third factory and fourth factory. Now I have to deal damage and deny his third or risk falling very behind. Unfortunately he's got a pretty nice tank line in the middle.
He starts his fourth, but makes a crucial mistake and sieges up in range of my tanks.
This lets me push in and force a lift at his third, but I take a lot of damage and lose two thors to his landed high ground vikings.
I contain him, but my tank line is horrifically positioned, which let him break out with ease. Now I'm real screwed, my third is lifted, his 6th is started, and i'm down 30 supply.
He pulls back a bit, I reland my CC, and then I'm forced to lift it again a minute later. Then he makes a mistake that puts me back in control. I push out a little and catch 3 thors off guard. He then sends in his army piecemeal and quickly loses 40 supply for none of mine.
I then use this opportunity to siege up his third and fourth, and then push all the way into his main. His battle cruisers pop in time to force all my tanks out of his main, but I've already killed all his factories.
He rebuilds all his starports in bottom right, floats to 12 and 6, but I deny those expansions with landed vikings. I don't have enough antair though, when I try to take out his bottom right, and his battlecruisers clean up everything and start camping my factories.
However, 3 thors pop out at once, finish off his last BC, and he's forced to GG out. Definitely my most memorable game, since Painuser is fairly well known, and this was probably the last straight-up macro TvT I've played in the last 2 months. I actually thought this was a smurf because he had pretty low apm, but looking at the hotkeys and having team games with Ret I'm pretty sure this was the real painuser. It's pretty clear that he was extremely rusty when this game was played, though.
Aside from ladder, my main SC2 time sink is coordinating USC's CSL team. I feel fucking great this season; we lacked a solid ace in season 4, but we've gained a couple of freshmen who have helped fill in the holes in our line up. So far we're 6-0 in the first half of the season, and we're looking to extend it to 7-0 against CSU Fullerton this Sunday (shameless stream plug www.justin.tv/rchktk). I'm pretty nervous because obviously x6mystik is no slouch and they've got another GM besides. I guess some small comfort is that since they've dropped matches to both UCSB and HMC we could still potentially end up first in our division even if we lose to fullerton, as long as we beat UCSB.
I'm also pretty excited about USC's third open LAN. This is going to be the third one I've run. It's on the 13th, on the USC campus; since our last one ended up with a really crowded room for spectators, we've managed to acquire a large auditorium where we're going to have the stream up on a big screen. I'm hoping we end up with games as epic as last time; we went to a game 5 with GoSu's link0 vs UCLA's sPsMagician in the finals, with crazy mech TvT before mech was cool.
Other random thoughts: FUCK kespa. I can't fucking believe how retarded this is. They are killing broodwar. They are moving from an objectively superior game to one that's merely the new hotness. Proleague, OSL, and MSL have never cared about reaching a western audience, while SC2's popularity in Korea is pretty dubious. What is the switch supposed to achieve? Kespa will lose sponsors because no one in Korea watches or cares about SC2. My fear is that this switch will trigger the collapse of esports in Korea, given that there is no way justify the amount of money that is put into broodwar with the viewership SC2 has. Boxer pulled in a lot of views for SC2 with his Yellow showmatch, but the Boxer and Yellow rivalry is pretty ingrained in Korean popculture. Is Taekbangleessang really enough to propel SC2 into the limelight? I don't think so.
The HOTS blizzcon build seems pretty hilariously imbalanced. To be fair, I've only played the custom map and not the actual alpha, but arc shield gas steal or pylon hatch block seem to be completely unstoppable as zerg. Swarm hosts appear to do jack shit to protoss, and blinding cloud's radius is hilariously small. Dark swarm/defilers/lurkers was so much more satisfying to use in broodwar, though if zero, jaedong, and effort end up playing zerg in SC2 I'll definitely switch back come HOTS. I've tried to play mech TvP for the longest time, but found it pretty much impossible due to lack of factory based anti-air and colossi destroying hellions too quickly. The HOTS map appears to have buffed mech by making the warhound a marauder that shoots up and is built from the factory; another a-move unit which requires zero micro or positioning from terran. Good job blizz.
