Playing it Safe

Selendis

Australia509 Posts

February 10 2012 06:34 GMT

I have a problem TL.

I really don't like losing. Especially not to ladder scrubs.

It all started last week. After an epic string of wins smudged with a few intermittent losses, I started losing again. When it rains it pours. Last saturday was the senith of my losing streak, it sent me way into tilt and I stupidly stopped all-inning and tried to macro cheese my zerg opponents in the Ghosts of Tarsonis Campaign .

I lost. Every. Single. Match.

I had to kill a few puppies that night to vent my frustration, but the damage was done. I woke up the next day praying that there was another way to play PvZ. Not necessarily an all-in, just a way to cut through the cheesiness and overdronage and play a straight forward 2 base vs 2 base. Then I saw Nyast's thread on such a thing; a contain using cannons and ff's off a gate expansion.

I tried it and it gave me some wins but also some losses as I realized it's weakness; anything that kills a 1 gate expo kills it easy peasy, not to mention zerg who blindly mass roaches off two base because they can. When that happens, you cannot even get the contain up.

So now I am back to FFE in PvZ. Full circle. But, I am stronger for it. No longer do I blindly rush for robo, no I get sentries and hallucination. If I get attacked, the sentries are my salvation and if I don't then the hallucinations give me the scouting info I need to react and bring on the pain, whether it be an early third with gate way tech, 2 base collosus or a gateway all in. Safety first.

The typical start of a PvT when it's all that's saving me from demotion.

One Chronoboosted 12gate later...

VICTORY

Similarly, my clutch PvT that has saved my mmr time and time again took a few hits and went from >60% win rate down to 58%.But the "how" was the most utterly humiliating. Namely I lost a PvT I had all but won. It all started with a marine rush that almost killed my nexus. but then wg finished and zealots warped in for the slice and dice with a lil help of my "F" key. He then expanded. I considered expanding myself, but I was feeling cocky, I took my third.

Yay for redundant FF's!

I slowly teched up to a collosus/high templar/archon deathball and kept denying his third while I kept gobbling up the map. Nevertheless something unnerved me; I couldn't get any scouting info. His base was lined with turrets and tanks, an inpenetrable fortress. Oh well, time to go for mass carriers. Nevermind the fact that I was already sitting on 200/200.

But then he switched from turtle terran to mass cloaked banshee multipronged-attack terran. Every one of my 8 expansions and my main got hit at once. I knew my multitasking wasn't good enough to save every base but I figured that if his army was attacking me his base would be undefended and I woudl win a base race anyway on account of having quadruple more bases than him and dps to boot.

Perhaps this wasn't such a great idea...

I a-moved with confidence only to hear the loud shotgun blast of a dozen siegetanks one shotting my ground army.

The game went on, but it ended with me losing a 50minute game.

I checked his rank.... Gold

GOLD?!

GOLD?! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRGGHH

I leaped off my chair and shook violently, delicately took my colorful sc2 headset off that was brimming with red then ran out the door, doing an angry dance in the empty yard in the middle of an unsuspecting suburbia.

OOOOOOOH the humilation. A Gold. A f-ing Gold.

After punching the ground for 5minutes I collected myself and washed off the dirt before bnet stalking the man who dominated me harder than Mistress C.

Huh, That's interesting. 6 wins in a row against diamond protosses. Every single game was over 40 minutes long. I didn't feel so bad after that. I still kind of regretting not 8 gating him, but then I remembered his great wall of rax he built at his natural. I guess next time I should take a leaf out of my PvZ book and spam hallucinations to scout next time. Not that I think I will ever encounter him again.

Anyway so a day or so ago I started winning again, if only because the matchmaker pitied me and decided to give me easier opponents. I have stabilised but I can't help but to reflect on the change of my mentality.

Last week I was looking for the right kill sequence in every match, now I'm just trying to stay alive long enough for me to opportunize on my opponent's mistakes.

iTzSnypah

United States1738 Posts

February 10 2012 06:51 GMT

From what I read, you're a turtle toss. Playing it safe doesn't mean you have to play defensively (I believe the pro's have figured it out because they are always doing something with their first units). I'm going to assume your Platinum because the Diamond/Gold matches described. Staying alive long enough to capitalize on opponent mistakes is not bad, however if you don't force mistakes then your effectively doing NOTHING. You lost the PvT described because you did nothing; you let your opponent cut corners. Unfortunately this game isn't about who can play the safest, it's what you can get away with. An easy example is in PvZ where the Protoss FFE's, the Zerg has 2 options, 2base all-in or 3rd hatch. Most Zerg's choose 3rd hatch because they can get away with it, while the 2base all-in most likely has the same win rate.

Selendis

Australia509 Posts

February 10 2012 07:18 GMT

Selendis

Australia509 Posts

February 10 2012 07:32 GMT

On February 10 2012 15:51 iTzSnypah wrote:
From what I read, you're a turtle toss. Playing it safe doesn't mean you have to play defensively (I believe the pro's have figured it out because they are always doing something with their first units). I'm going to assume your Platinum because the Diamond/Gold matches described. Staying alive long enough to capitalize on opponent mistakes is not bad, however if you don't force mistakes then your effectively doing NOTHING. You lost the PvT described because you did nothing; you let your opponent cut corners. Unfortunately this game isn't about who can play the safest, it's what you can get away with. An easy example is in PvZ where the Protoss FFE's, the Zerg has 2 options, 2base all-in or 3rd hatch. Most Zerg's choose 3rd hatch because they can get away with it, while the 2base all-in most likely has the same win rate.

Ok your post is getting on my nerves.

Firstly I'm not a turtle toss, I earnt my way to diamond just like every other protoss; by 2 base all-inning.

Secondly, I'm not plat, save on SEA . With a grand total of 2 people on at any one time on SEA it's hard to get a promotion.

I lost the PvT due to bad decisionmaking and multitasking, in terms of "turtling" he was the turtler since I way, way out expanded him and perpetually denied his third.

MysteryMeat1

United States3291 Posts

February 10 2012 07:57 GMT

I know what you mean. Their is nothing more frustrating then losing. Actually scratch that, losing multiple times in a row (mid-masters toss) however, if i go on a lose streak, and start tilting. I do one of two things.

1st: play monobattles: honestly i only encounter players that are plat and lower. makes me feel good.

2nd: I have a guilty addiction to trolling peep mode with my friend. You play badly for the first 4 minutes, everyone bets against you, friend bets on you. Proceed to ROFLSTOMP and feel good. Your friend also feels good. If your friend is good, like mine is, then you can switch while both of you rake in the chips.

GLHF in the future

Zariel

Australia1285 Posts

February 10 2012 09:53 GMT

I'm a high masters protoss on my own account, but I also offrace random a fair bit on my friends account and he's in plat league at the moment. I've vs'ed top8 diamond players a few times, stomped them and left them dumbfounded if I manage to random protoss

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