Starcraft Adventures (Silver edition)

Video for today's stream

- Ladder Games

Previous Starcraft Adventure Blogs
Silver Edition
Part 1 - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=320936
Part 2 - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=321914
Part 3 - http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=325310

Tools
HellGreen's Auto Scene Change application for streaming - http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=269995
My Own3d.tv channel - http://www.own3d.tv/Live/259165 - Where i'm streaming all of my gaming to.
My YouTube account - http://www.youtube.com/user/c10fnr?feature=mhee
My Clan - Channel 4 News Team - http://www.c4nt.net
My Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/seeton_
Razer Equipment - Blackwidow Ultimate, Naga Hex

Day 4 Streaming
Season 7 Begins! Unfortunately not as much Starcraft as i would have liked however I have put up quite a few video's of Mass Effect, DotA2 and Heroes of Newerth, as well as journeying back to Battlefield 3 for a bit of stress relief. I've made an effort to keep up to date on the GSL games and watched quite a lot of Day[9].

My SASL game this week became a non-event as the easter weekend wittled away the time we had to play it. I found my opponent hadn't sought me out, yet just this morning i find that facebook had filtered a "Non-Friend" to some special list and not alerted me about it. A little dissapointing as I would have much preferred to have played than not. However I got the win as I publicy called out my opponent for no response. My Round 3 opponent is non-other than my good friend Caige, who I skirmish against quite a lot. Should be fun this week!

Game 1 - Antiga Shipyard - Replay
My first game played on the 6th of April, and the first of my last two games for Season 6; is played against CapeHorn, a Zerg player on the map Antiga Shipyard. Just prior to this I'd played against Cage and also had some fun in some monobattles. So my head was certainly in the game. I Place my buildings out and drop a forge, my plan here was to fake a fast expand. I go for a cannon rush at his natural as I see he's fast expanded. Popping up just as it completes.

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Say hello to my little friend!

I deal a bunch of damage to his hatch and kill some lings. He does take down my probe, I've meanwhile at home started massing Zealots out of 3 gates and teching for my warp tech and +1. This takes CapeHorn by surprise and he's incredulous that I've managed that many zealots off of a FFE.

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Surprise!

I chrono out my zealot force and attack his 3rd, using a new strategy, I've a-moved next to the hatch to force the zealots to engage aggresive units when they come by, I'm very pleased with the outcome, however CapeHorn isn't!

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Yessssss.....

Warp Gate and +1 finish at the same time and I rip his ling counter apart. He's also left a pylon from my original cannon rush at his natural. So very handy. I continue to rally and warp zealots across as he gets out some roaches. Too little too late CapeHorn.

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GGWP!

Learning Points
+Tactic was effective, may bank that one for some fun!
+Keep a closer eye on my supply, capped a couple of times.
+My cannon rush could have been executed such that the probe could have escaped easily, or alternatively if i built an extra cannon for extra damage.
+Could have started warping at his natural a lot earlier if I'd realised the pylon was still up, map awareness!

Game 2 - Metalopolis - Replay
Game 2 is against a Protoss player named AggieCoolGuy on the map metalopolis. PvP match ups, so prepare for some one base wondering!

Fired up from my last game I do the PvP thing and rush my Twilight council, a recent Day9 daily showed that Huk/Grubby play a TC and get Dark Templar really quickly. I thought this might server me well and what the hey I was feeling a little cheesy.

I wall off at my ramp, which in retrospect I should have learnt my lesson from a previous blog. I drop out some DT's and blind push at him, I hit slightly too late and he gets his observer out as i move in to his base. I get an expansion up but leave my backdoor wide open. I had scouted a warp prism and should have seen it coming, but failed to react to the knowledge i'd gained from the DT. He drops 4 Immortals into my base and warps in some Gateway units. I GG shortly after.

Learning Points
+DT's are quite strong, possibly need more than one attacking at seperate locations
+3 Stalker strategy possibly needs to be executed a little quicker however it provided good intel.
+DT's are good scouts, but so are observers.
+A safer build would have been to go for the Robo myself, however not nearly as fun!

Thus ends my run in Season 6, a little sad, but also where i got up to Silver, hopefully I'll get a lot more practice in Season 7!

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Just outside the top 25, must play more!

Season 7
Game 1 - Ohana LE - Replay
My placement match is on one of the brand new maps, having not seen much play on it, I'm very curious to see how it plays out. My opponent is alexchilton on the map Ohana LE. I drop my pylon at my natural as it looks like a map that is good for that. Unfortunately not used to the positioning of it and as you'll see in my youtube video i struggle to find that sweet spot to slot my cybernetics in.

Being a Terran i decide for a 3 gate robo expand build, I take both XN towers to check for incoming attacks and grab a Zealot and stalker and send them up to his main. He rally's a reaper in which starts bombing my gateways but causes minimal real damage to it.

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'tis but a scratch!

I take it out with a stalker and Immortal then send those up to the forward XN tower. He moves out shortly after they arrive with a large force of Marines and Marauders. I foolishly try to pick off a marine or 2 and achieve nothing but losing a Zealot. He's already got concussive shells! I get caught up building buildings instead of warping in more units and he strolls up my ramp and squashes my army.

GG! Placed in Silver again, so no harm done there!

Learning Points
+Build more units! Especially when I see an attack coming. Sentry's would have been ultra useful in this situation.
+Got too cute with probe numbers at each base, just send a bunch and keep producing!
+Possibly needed to move up to 5 Gate's a lot faster than 9 minutes! Oops!
+Use more sentrys!

Game 2 - Tal'Darim Altar LE - Replay
My second game for season 7 is another PvT against a player name GeneralDoik, the map is Tal'Darim Altar LE. I go for a standard Gateway opening using my gas early enough so that as soon as my cyber finishes I can build a stalker and Warpgate Tech, I throw on another gate and a Robo and head across to his base warp in a couple more stalkers, putting the total to 4 and take out a bunch of supply depots. no doubt capping him this early into the game. He has a sizeable force of marines and marauders, but I still deal a bunch of damage. Again I try to get too cute with my kiting and end up trading 1 marine for 1 stalker over and over. Horrible efficiency! He pushes out with what he has, i have 5 gates this time and i do hold for a little while, however it's all for naught and I GG out.

Learning Points
+Wait an additional round of warp ins on defense. Had i waited 5 more seconds i would have attacked with a force that would have killed his and survived, as opposed to one that weakens his and dies. Overall left him in a stronger position.
+Deal Damage and bail. I killed 3 depots and made his rax set on fire. I could have picked off just a couple of marines and been happy, instead I pressed the attack and put him in to a position of power.

Game 3 - Daybreak - Replay
My 3rd and final match for the blog is a PVP on the map made popular by the GSL, Daybreak. My opponents name is Jeebz.

I've had minimal experience on this map, however I've seen it played a number of times and it's one that is in the SASL map pool, I'm semi used to it. I bank chrono for the 2 gates to pump out stalkers as well as the cyber to pump out warp tech faster. I move up to 4 stalkers and drop a Robo as his scout probe gets chased out of my base. He unfortunately killed my scout probe early so i have no idea what he has. His forward pylon i spotted while chasing his probe around the map, and I do a quick perimeter sweep and find it.

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Got ya!

I then move to make my own forward pylon and look towards pressuring him. I get my obs over there a bit late and unfortunately lose my army, I had actually dealt a fair amount of damage, but as soon as the Immortals went down the rest was quick to follow. I had expanded behind the pressure however and start rallying probes across there, and pumping out a replacement army asap. I also grab a RoboBay and start to push out colossus and some sentry's to round out my army. Zealots now become a main feature of my army, and i start to tech for +1 at around 13 mins. I send a lone Zealot to take the XN towers, and use my Obs to check out his expansions. It's quiet for a while, i move up to 6 gates, get up a Twilight council and start looking at getting some more pylons up again.

My obs picks up when he gets his 3rd and i spot his army attacking. At this point i have 3 colossus with a 4th on the way but so does he and despite the High ground i attack where he has a better concave.

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Bad place to attack :-(

I lose a large chunk of my army here and he's knocking on my front door. GG comes shortly after

Learning Points
+Obs use was good, could have set a patrol up for more up to date intel.
+Don't attack into a concave
+Tech Structures near each other, or alternatively on a hotkey (Second forge not used)
+Perhaps some bonus pylons near the 3rd, 4th etc so that when the obs picks it up I can quickly warp in some Zealots to pressure it, but also to make him show his hand.
+Keep warping in units! Reviewing the replay I see a dry patch where I don't actually warp in much at all. Really have to get on top of that. Macro is likely to win me more games than micro at this level.
+Retreat units before macroing, will likely save me from losing so much!

Conclusion
I had some fun with my cheesey play in late Season 6, and i think i've made a bit of progress in terms of my builds and stuff that i need to get more solid on. In regards to getting better, I think the only thing I can do is keep playing more regularly and see how it goes from there!

GGWP!

Starcraft Adventures (Silver edition) - Part 4

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Ongoing

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