Quick update on yesterday - I went 18 and 11 on the ladder, which is good... but my mmr is still low enough to hit the occasional plat, and 0 masters... so lots of work to go.
I lost every single custom game I played but since I was always playing better players I'm not worried.
ah, and my "Swear Jar" is up to 10$ for charity ... twice I left a game before it was really over, and there were 4 times I had to consider myself bm, though only one guy I straight up insulted. Ugh ... (edit 1$ per bm and 2$ per early leave)
Not much time to games today but I'll put in a few tonight...
I noticed that as the day when on I really got away from watching the replays of games, and left the day with a feeling that I hadn't learnt anything... let when I looked over the day as a whole I realized my clear focus needs to be consistent execution, and macro. not surprising as a zerg player - I noticed a lot of supply blocks a lot of loses coming from simply not spending the money I had on hand, despite otherwise being a decent position. There are still huge holes in knowledge side of the game as my play with Vlare showed but frankly I feel I shouldn't address them until I actually have the habits in place to spend the money to actually execute the correction strats.
So tonight it's all about focus on my eyes and my hands - I want to be looking at the mini map like a hawk (actually I'm better aware than most at my level) but also hitting up that resource counter every few seconds and dropping hatches and whatnot so money is spent. Also I really want to focus on execution, there were a few games I lost where I remembered sending the drone to make a spore or roachwaren etc and then just not having it .... I'll try some ideas out tonight. like a constant self monologue of what my next step is...
I made a few notes about supply counts and such watching sheths stream but I want to confirm more before quote them for anyone...
right on I go... wish me luck, I might just need it
oh and soloturtle, ya I really need to sit with a smart zergy, thats fairly obvious but not something I've ever done.
Just recently signed up to post on forums with the intention of posting a blog doing the exact same thing as you (can't post a blog yet - need to be member for 3 days). Good luck though, hope you can make it in two weeks time because if you can't do it, then I probably can't either...
Also, how the heck do you play almost 30 1v1 ladder games in one day? Seems pretty crazy to me.
On January 24 2012 09:58 hotcheetos wrote: Just recently signed up to post on forums with the intention of posting a blog doing the exact same thing as you (can't post a blog yet - need to be member for 3 days). Good luck though, hope you can make it in two weeks time because if you can't do it, then I probably can't either...
Also, how the heck do you play almost 30 1v1 ladder games in one day? Seems pretty crazy to me.
haha gl to you man!
acutally I played about 10 customs on top of it ....
On January 24 2012 11:41 karis wrote: cool hope it goes well.
i really admire your dedication just remember to make sure you still enjoy playing.
I just had to post this because of the title
\
haha going to play a few games to that on repeat just for the awesomness...
quite day actually ...
I went against my no team games idea, and played with a friend since I didn't have any strong practice partners and didn't really have too much time - we got up to #1 master 2v2 (in our clearly very weak division) then actually him some really smart 2v2 teams with nice builds and a losing streak took us back down to #3 but it's just points, doesn't mean a whole lot anyways...
played a single zvp 1v1 to cap the night on metal - he ffe phonix and I was planing to go upgraded speedling anyways, so I was able to power lings of 4 hatch to deny his third and kill his ground amry, controled the map and moved into a really unlosable position but then stopped playing, and frankly no excuse but let him kill a couple of bases and get up his third from a lack of focus - last week I would have left the game 100% there were 3-4 times I was just soooo frustrated with myself... thankfully my my last army ( no more cash and bases dry) was just enuogh to break through into his production (cyber and stargates he needs vs my few broods) and he was dry too....
GG
not much a skilled game to watch and I should have powered out more 1v1s or worked some build research but still I'll take it as sign of making progress mentally.
All I did was watch Stephano replays and the videos on his stream. Didn't play a single game because I still don't know what opener I should do against the 3 races.
On January 25 2012 03:46 hotcheetos wrote: You certainly did better than I did last night.
All I did was watch Stephano replays and the videos on his stream. Didn't play a single game because I still don't know what opener I should do against the 3 races.
My basics that brought me into diamond league before I quit:
against Terran: 15 hatch 14 pool 14 gas. against Toss: 14gas/14pool/21(?)hatch (because of cannon rushes) against Zerg: 14gas/14pool into whatever you want (banelings/mass sling/roaches)
On January 25 2012 03:46 hotcheetos wrote: You certainly did better than I did last night.
All I did was watch Stephano replays and the videos on his stream. Didn't play a single game because I still don't know what opener I should do against the 3 races.
My basics that brought me into diamond league before I quit:
against Terran: 15 hatch 14 pool 14 gas. against Toss: 14gas/14pool/21(?)hatch (because of cannon rushes) against Zerg: 14gas/14pool into whatever you want (banelings/mass sling/roaches)
those all work - personally I've been using a few,
vT you almost have to hatch first to get creep up in time to hold of hellions, steal gas ever map I can (assuming he took one) otherwise I don't know how to push out and take my nat without roaches vs hellions - I tend to stick to bolt'n up the front with crawler evo + my 3rd hatch and uprade my lings muta bane - but keep a tab on him and add in roach if you scout mutli fact - eventually go broods and then when/if he over vickings ultra
vP it's pool first all the way on ladder maps (imo) - really unless your comfortable with droping a hatch in a toss base like cats you can't really go hatch first - you have to play dif vs forge expand or gateway expand but generally I 15 pool, try to drop a 16 hatch if I can (if you quick with drones you should be safe vs cannon) but save up 2 larva for when the pool finishes and use the 4 lings to take your nat at the lastest - I take a later gas vs forge, power up to as close to 70 drones as I can get with supply blocks hah - check there gases with overlords if they stay on 2 more likely a gateway timing 4 gas something more tech heavy - try to keep tabs on when their warp gates finish, this may seem obvious but unleses they going air, they won't hit a timing without gates except for a few zel pressure.
vs gate expand (this is uncommon on the ladder now but should be making a come back) just watch for the 3 gate timing as if you don't plan for it can roll you and make you sad otherwise, vs phonix you take bases and lings to delay an expo, -also I prefer to steal gas vs gateway as soon as I see the cyber drop, limites toss options to 4 gate/gate expo or a late tech play you can usually hold.
vZ I've been 15 hatch all the way every map which is a little nuts but I enjoy the micro challenge of holding a early pool all in - important to have ovs out to try to catch those 7pool lings running at you so you know - otherwise if you can scout a gas/pool opening I like to open a roach bo which makes very very safe early (but runs the risk that smarter players can use their speed map control to deny info and out play out either by macro or timed allin) or I do the style I stole from dapollo's vods where he 17 gas into banes first and drones as much as possible.
if anyone is interested in more details about my bo just ask, but frankly I've not wanted to give advice to anyone since ... well shit bro I'm not even masters duh hahah...
On January 25 2012 03:46 hotcheetos wrote: You certainly did better than I did last night.
All I did was watch Stephano replays and the videos on his stream. Didn't play a single game because I still don't know what opener I should do against the 3 races.
also a tip to those thrown off a little by a match up - pick a quick decent early allin and use it every game in the match up until your ready to face it... I know that sounds silly but for a while I didn't want to play zvz, it was kicking my ass I wasn't laddering for fear of it ... so I just early pooled every game got every game over in under 8 minutes for the most part and got to enjoy my vt vp while not letting the vz get me down...
the game is the game, there is nothing wrong with cheesing here and there, even every time verse a race for a while if it keeps you playing, and lets focus more completely on another match up.
ideally just find practice partners but thats not always so easy.
How anyone gets supply blocked as zerg is beyond me.
Protoss/Terran and supply blocked? Somewhat forgivable, as you need to actually look at your mineral line, select a worker, then build 1-2 pylons/depots. Nothing too difficult, but still requires good multitask to perform consistently.
Zerg and supply blocked? Wtf? Why you no hit 4sv once in a while?
Anyone else feel zerg macro is much easier than toss and terran macro? Even offracing as (my terrible) zerg, my minerals never really go above 300 simply because the ability to always spend your money is so easy (so many larvas on 1 hotkey, sigh sc2), whereas for toss/terran there is still the element of placing additional pylons/structures and cycling through difficult production facilities.
On January 25 2012 03:46 hotcheetos wrote: You certainly did better than I did last night.
All I did was watch Stephano replays and the videos on his stream. Didn't play a single game because I still don't know what opener I should do against the 3 races.
also a tip to those thrown off a little by a match up - pick a quick decent early allin and use it every game in the match up until your ready to face it... I know that sounds silly but for a while I didn't want to play zvz, it was kicking my ass I wasn't laddering for fear of it ... so I just early pooled every game got every game over in under 8 minutes for the most part and got to enjoy my vt vp while not letting the vz get me down...
the game is the game, there is nothing wrong with cheesing here and there, even every time verse a race for a while if it keeps you playing, and lets focus more completely on another match up.
ideally just find practice partners but thats not always so easy.
My suggestions for quick (almost) sure-win builds:
ZvZ: 15 hatch 14 pool/gas into speedling all-in, 1-2 drone on gas after the first 100 gas to be safe against baneling/roach tech. Works 95% for me offracing as Z in diamond.
ZvP: 11 pool 18 hatch (15 hatch 16 pool if you can get away with it) into fast mutas. Learn the pre-muta push timings and how to hold them off, once you do that diamond and even master tosses just roll over to mass mutas; they just don't have the map awareness and decision making to effectively deal with mutalisk mobility abuse, something tosses have trouble with even in GSL.
ZvT: No clue for a build (I don't even have a build, I just play by feel in this matchup), ZvT is just easy for me as zerg macro is so easy. Most of the time I get outmicro'ed hard by my T opponent, but I still win due to having so much more shit. You're not going to face any Terran that can macro/micro consistently in TvZ until high Masters, so make sure to always prioritize macro in this matchup and you should be good. An example would be if you're getting dropped, don't spend more than 2-3 seconds dealing with the drop; run drones, recall the hotkey group with lings then send to drop location, then continue to larva inject/make units/buildings. Losing a few drones, an evo chamber or even your pool is NOTHING compared to losing out on 12 larvas and stockpiling a few hundred minerals.
@Hardmacro - thanks for the second post... first post was the, umm tough love post? heh I don't know there isn't really an excuse for anything in sc2 it's so easy m'I'right?
Thanks for the tips man, I actually rolled with your zvz suggestion for a while just to avoid playing the matchup a few months back and it did give a win rate of 70% vs the diamonds I was playing so anyone reading, unless the metagame has changed this can still roll people.
truth be told my block is consistancy and attention span it seems, I don't make the same mistake 2 games in a row but when I watch my replays I can really see parts of the game when I'm really in the zone and others where I seem to just be going through the motions, and poorly at that...
anyways I'll keep your suggestions in mind, thanks for reading!
On January 30 2012 00:58 LoveCrashes wrote: Hey Galleon, I don't know where in Toronto you are, but on Thursday nights they have a StarCraft 2 night at NetConnect at 544 Yonge St.
Some Masters practice there the last time I went if you want to have like conversations about the games afterwards. Up to you!
Hey man thanks, I was at one of the Sat lans, but it's a hour away (2 hours round trip) thursdays just don't work for me...
EPT
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