EPTOf course I jest. I could never be a champion at any of these games. I am not one to commit to gruelling repetition to perfect an activity beyond all others. I love watching the best, but near enough is good enough for me, even when near enough is nowhere near enough.
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Diamond league - 4v4. NA Server (I'm only Plat on SEA).
Like most scrubs who will never be anything but average at best, I started playing 4v4 because playing 1v1 meant my failure was mine alone, and that feeling sucks. I got over that, though. No, I now play 4v4 because it's just plain hilarious. TL seems to hold it in low regard, but TL also seems to be filled to the brim with players wanting to be the best, or at least the best they can be. And 4v4 is strictly for warming up, chilling out, or hiding from the harsh reality that is how much of a scrub you are.
I decided to start this blog when I realised I will never have anything of value to contribute to TL, and there's really not other place for my crap. My meagre post count is a tally of the bad ideas I typed out and forgot to think twice about before posting. I read in depth strategy guides, nod my head, and understand that I've probably got an hour or 2 every few nights to play games and I'll be damned if I'm practicing fundamentals on YABOT.
So, in the spirit of being utterly honest, I decided to do what I always do after a game of Starcraft 2 nowadays - spend an inordinate amount of time contemplating on how much I screwed up in that game. Only now I'll share the results with TL.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DkW48.jpg)
Off to a good start this season.
I've never properly analysed a replay via SC2Gears, but based on the data for this game I can say with certainty that I screwed up my opening, my injects, my larvae management, and whatever you might deem "timings". Deadalus found success with his hellion -> tank build, and was also the only player on our team to ping or make any effort to inform allies as to what he was scouting. I could pat myself on the back for spotting a double 10 pool, but I did nothing about it. I kind of assumed the others would be watching, because if I'm not microing my scout worker, I've got bugger all else to do in my opening (besides correctly assigning my workers to mineral patches, but those bastards never do what I tell them to anyway) so I watch what someone else's scout worker is doing.
Fortunately, our 10 pooling zerg opponents decided that 6 lings coming about a minute apart was a good strategy, and the best thing to do with them is nibble at neonova's nexus. There was also a spinecrawler rush attempt. After I'd cleaned up the lings. Weird.
Now, generally when someone messes up a rush like that, there's the expectation of a counter attack. Which is why that is exactly what I stopped doing not too long ago. A lot of people seem to think 4v4 is about knocking out one player with a coordinated timing as soon as possible, and while it's true that it's much easier to co-ordinate an attack than it is a defense, it's even easier to macro while your opponents wait for the inevitable counter push.
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Unfortunately, I somehow fail to gain a drone lead over the 10 poolers just a few minutes after the failed rush.
I did, however, get to 2-base, and once I'm on 2 base I like to keep my opponents on 1. To that end what I love to do is deny the expansions by keeping so active with lings I miss injects and further screw up my ability to maintain a respectable economy. Deadalus goes further and roasts dozens of enemy probes (probably sans the horrible macro part), so maybe taking opponents down to half base play would have made up for my inability to manage my economy.
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Double evo when you're floating minerals on 1 gas. These upgrades aren't starting any time soon.
It might also help if I actually stick to the whole "deny expansions" thing I just talked about, because I proceed to not scout expansions for the next 8 minutes, at which point I put down my 3rd. This felt like possibly the earliest 3rd I've made in recent memory, which is somewhat depressing. On the plus side, I was the first to actually proceed to 3 bases. That's something, right?
Deadalus decides he's had enough playing around, and sieges up, blasting away Shauddi's 2nd base. There's little they can do about the slow push since everyone but me gets in on the action and actually supports him (I'm pretty sure I had no idea this was going on because of the muta attack at my shiny new 3rd base).
One thing I'm proud of is my ability to use fungal growth. I used to click ON the air units. Now I know to click on the little ground indicators. Has anyone else made this mistake? I thought I was just terrible with infestors, and stopped using them altogether for months.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/x8XlU.jpg)
You don't know how much easier mass void rays are to handle now.
Completely oblivious to the fact that my 3 allies have just crushed the enemy, I decide I have 3/3 and adrenal glands on the way, and it's time to get a spire. I could just go ultras, I usually go ultras at that point, but I have realised that having infestors as my only anti air isn't always the best idea, and a late muta switch (or just broodlord corruptors) really hurts an opponent who doesn't have anti air themselves.
Usually my 3/3 adrenal lings clean house, but the upgrades aren't even anywhere near done as Deadalus, unknown and neonova hollow out one opponent after another. I felt like I did a good job keeping those 2 zerg players down, but in retrospect I think I can say my biggest contribution to this game was not dying. This is good, because it's better than the times when your biggest contribution is dying early and making it easier for your teammates to expand.
My broodlords arrive in time to go home, but building them kept my money low. More points for me! So to wrap things up, it's awards time!
Deadalus gets the Scoutmaster Trophy for being diligent with the pings as previously mentioned. I particularly liked that he noted Shauddi was going mass rine, though at the time I didn't realise that's what he meant.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fGigz.jpg)
What? I thought you were going Hellions, it's too late to sw... oh.
I'm going to give the Best and Fairest Trophy to unknown, because he seemed to always be there to support Deadalus. Deadalus BMed the other team unfortunately. Bad form, man, I looked up to you.
The Amazing Effort trophy goes to Neonova, who managed to get through the game having the least APM, without using a single control group, and yet topping the score tables for units (why does that so heavily favour structures destroyed?)
Link to the Replay
