EPT1. Post at the beginning of the day which builds I will do for which maps
2. Edit my OP with the results of each game and a quick thought about it
3. Edit OP with total time and match up stats. Goal is 8h gameplay per day.
The challenge here will be managing my homework time so I don't get owned on days before things are due and ruin a few days worth of practice. Ladder blog for today (24th) to come.
November 24 2011
Builds
These are my defaults:
TvZ: reaper expand into blue flame/mech
TvP: SjoW style 1/1/1 expand with hellion drop + banshee harass
TvT: 1 rax FE into 3 rax
Exceptions
-close air TvZ on Metalopolis: ThorZain style 1 rax CC into double gas reactor hellion/2 port banshee
-close air TvT on Metalopolis and Shattered Temple: 1/1/1 expand (cloak + elevator too hard to stop with 1 rax FE)
-TvZ on Shattered: Do ThorZain's reactor hellion into fast 2 tank push w/ aggressive bunker placement. Sieging one tank at their gold third owns.
Note: I have banned Tal'Darim, Antiga Shipyard, and Narazim Crypt.
Game 1
Loss. Spawned in at 7 o clock metalopolis. Scouted the Zerg was close air at 5 o clock. Did a 2 port build but lost to a 2 base roach/baneling all in. I didn't make a bunker in my main because i was greedy. Since this type of pressure is so common I now know I need a bunker.
Haha so far I'm enjoying writing these ^^
Game 2
Win. Cross positions versus on Abyssal Caverns a Random(Zerg). Too late to do my intended reaper strat versus Zerg, so instead I did a 1/1 expand into a 4 fact +1 7SCV GoOdy push. The way the third is setup on Abyssal makes it really hard to defend as Zerg, you just siege up on the ledge and own it up. I scouted fast lair and assumed muta but he went infestor. I think he didn't engage soon enough and couldn't break my ballin' positioning haha. I have to try to remember to always send a hellion to kill the ling at my third and another to kill the ling at the tower before I push.
Game 3
Loss. TvZ on Shattered Temple. My 2 tank push was reasonably successful, although my tank placement was poor. Basically if you don't get in range of their natural hatchery quickly then they just mass shit and your push slowly becomes useless as their army is too large. Despite this I think I was somewhat ahead having a third CC up in my main, but my management of my economy and production was poor while i was pushing. Generally I had shitty management this game and ultimately when he showed broodlords and instead maxed out on 5/3 ultras. This would have been fine but I engaged as a blob which is horrible against ultras. Oh well!
Game 4
Loss. TvZ on Abyssal Caverns. Not much to say about this game. Similar to Game 3, was in an alright position but engaged poorly. Really not sure how to practice maxed battles versus Zerg. It feels extremely finicky, especially when ghosts, infestors with neural, broodlords, and vikings are involved. I would love a Darlegein style micro map for maxed TvZ battles..
Game 5
Win. Found an in base pylon, assumed 4 gate, pulled scvs to bunker while i dropped hellions in his main. GG.
Love how easily opening up 1/1/1 then expanding deals with most all ins (4 gate, 3 gate robo, 4 gate stargate, DT, etc.)
Game 6
Win. I liked this TvZ a lot (on Shattered Temple). Something about microing bio is much more fun than microing mech. My initial push did some nice pressure and delayed his third greatly. I managed to throw down a starport and 2 more barracks while I was pushing so the transition to the mid game was smoother than game 3 was.
Killing lings at future expansions feels very important. This game I repeatedly and aggressively removed lings from my 4th and 5th locations and I will try to keep up this tactic for future games. My Marine micro was still sloppy at times though, I like how unforgiving the relationship between banelings and marines is, it makes TvZ intense
Game 7
Loss. Was this my first game of starcraft? I was making shit up, trying to improvise a build, and lost to one of the most common trends on the ladder, two base muta play. Fuck.
Game 8
Loss Shakuras. Small mistake TvT versus 1/1/1 cloak/marine/hellion aggression. Late turrets and compulsive MULEing.
Game 9
Win. Saw no expo on TvP on Xel Naga. Checked for Starport at lowground third and saw nothing. Added 2 rax with no expo CC, took 2nd gas, and dropped three hellions in his main.
This really hard counters every protoss all in. I end up ahead in workers and once stim finishes and i have 2-3 medivacs it's pretty much GG. Tricky part is not letting their army burst down your bunker. Basically an identical game to game 5.
Game 10
Loss. TvZ mech versus roach muta. He snipes Thors with roach and magic boxes the remaining Thors with Mutas. I think I need to always keep my Thors behind all tanks in TvZ when I go mech.
Game 11
Loss. Maneuvered poorly on Xel Naga Caverns. The hole in the middle of the map makes things interesting for sure, I got a little careless here.
Game 12
Loss. Watching dreamhack and losing TvPs on Shakuras lololol. Had a nice opening, was short on ghosts though. I didn't check his composition well enough and had a mid game battle with no ghosts versus mass speedlot/archon/stalker.
Game 13
Loss. Poor macro TvP. Didn't add enough production facilities after taking my third : /
Game 14
Loss. I'm banning abyssal caverns because 1 base play for Protoss is extremely good: there is room for 2-3 buildings only to safely place in your main and the rest is a narrow highground exposed on both sides. He sniped my stim after staying on one base 3 gate robo forever, then just chrono'd three colo and pushed off two base.
Game 15
Win. Opponent did roach ling pressure early on, I was doing ThorZain 2 tank push so I got lucky with my build order choice. I will now be doing that build rather than the 4 fact 12 minute timing I was doing before ^_^;;
Game 16
Win. Did a 2 SCV bunker rush with reapers jumping up the cliff behind (tactic from a GoOdy replay), killed natural and he took his third so I just did a 2 base push and killed his third. Some sloppiness/miscontrol on my part wasn't enough to throw away the lead gg~~
Game 17
Win. Pretty nondescript cross positions game on Shattered Temple. I sniped his tech lab and so he never finished his combat shields or got more than 1/0. So he flooded me with units early on but I was able to struggle it out for the win. I like how marine/tank TvTs often end up as absolute slug fests with tonnes of action and army movement the whole game. It's a good match up right now with 99% of people playing marine tank.
Game 18
Win TvP Xel Naga..EZ...same as previous games where toss 1 bases. I need to make sure I drop hellions as he is attacking. This game I had no multitask so i waited until afterwards. I still killed ~20 probes but I would have gotten more if I dropped while he attacked up my ramp..
Game 19
Win TvP Shattered. I'm !!!SO STOKED ON THIS GAME!!!
Once in a while a protoss opens up Pheonix. Since I always open 1/1/1, I simply go 2 rax marauder + Thor + some medivacs and absolutely roll over the shotty defense of the protoss player who is overly reliant on pheonixes and forcefields. I've only been able to do this twice in the last few days, but it feels good man.
Game 20
Win TvT Cross Positions Shattered. He delayed his expo greatly to pressure with 1/1/1+cloak, I defended and pushed my advantage for the win in the mid game. Have to remember to be satisfied with a small amount of damage from drops and not to kamikazee it up..
Best of 7 with Free
I guess Free isn't his account but i'll go with it anyways. So he was clearly better than me and won 4-1. I'll give a brief summary of the games:
1. close pos metal i try my 2 port gimick but he gets mutas out quickly and has spores/4 queens by the time my 4 banshees get there. He pushes this nice start to the win.
2. i pick xel naga because i'm a jerk like that. Bunker pressure leads to him banelinging me and failing that, he ggs. 1-1
3. He picks a GSL map. I choose to sack my natural to kill his fourth. This was not a good trade. GG~
4. down 2-1 I pick shattered to try my thorzain fast 2 tank push, but he has lings on the map to deny reinforcements. This delays everything for me and i take my third at 17 minutes. Knowing I'm really behind, I try to turtle and get 3/3 but to no avail. 3-1.
5. I pick shakuras to try to mech to 4 base and go mass raven. He delays some things and comes in maxed on broods and mutas when I only have 4-5 seeker missiles ready and maybe 6 thors. GG 4-1! His zerg was really nice, outclassed me for sure.
Game 26
Cross map Antiga Shipyard TvZ Win! Did GoOdy's 12 minute +1 push w/ 7 SCVs and it worked nicely! the push failed but i ran by with hellions and killed ~15 drones while allowing time to re rally units to my natural and get a nice siege line to protect my third. Lucky that this map has just 1 wide choke for all three bases
Ended up a thirty minute game where he was just behind for a while and then lost.
Had three people watching me play this game which was fun, I enjoy some spectators in person haha ^^
Time Update
SC2Gears informs me that I'm sitting pretty at 6:34:59 time wise. 2:24 am and a little less than an hour and a half left to play.
Game 27 Loss xel naga caverns. misread his 25 rax as an all in when he just expanded quickly after. This game was confusing. I think he opening 4 rax then expanded. I was aware of CC first where you transition to 4 rax then double gas but he had no CC at his nat so i was wierded out. Anyways later he did a back door attack then drop to my main and it did a lot of damage/gave him enough of a lead to win.. Okay so it was a 1 rax FE to 4 rax that he did. Anyways not used to seeing it so i made 2 bunkers ><
Game 28
Win TvZ shattered. I love marine tank it's really, really fun to play. Similar feeling this game to TvT where you just flood marines and have to move your army around the whole game. I feel like it's quite good practice for general mangement: having to manage your expos, upgrade, and unit production while jockeying for position on the map ^^ I like this game i thin k i'll play some more loolol
Game 29
Frustrating TvT loss. He just walked around the tower i didn't have in the mid game on shakuras and sieged up beside all of my factories. I hate having to build shit outside my main but you don't have a choice as terran. I guess this game was a reminder that the towers are integral to winning on shakuras. Should seize them and tank them up ASAPly every TvT...
Game 30
Win TvT that one map with the stuff on it. Saw he was 1/1/1 aggressioning So I saved my three reapers at his nat for his push. Had to pull lots of SCVs to stop it but luckily I had killed his banshees earlier only losing 2 marines i think (scans were ready and he was overeager with them). 3 reapers one shot SCVs so it gets pretty disgusting pretty fast. GGYO~
Game 31
yeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so he invests a ton into banshee harass TvT so i just defend for a while and then kill him. alright. getting tired here, summaries are making less sense. 2 games 2 go
AIGHT so just played my last game and won TvZ on Antiga Shipyard. Was a pretty standard game, slow push to take 4th at gold while he gets hive and counters here and there, ultimately I defend and get some nice drops off for the win.
SC2GEARS says 34 games and 8 hours and 10 seconds! Day 1 complete! (defining day as the time between when i sleep for 5-8 hours not as an actual day). It is 4:30 am and i am very tired. I woke up late today and had class for a little under 3 hours so that's the way it goes! 16-18 overall, would be 15-14 if I exclude the Bo7 to Free who is much higher rated than myself.
