EPTSo here is my update, it’s been 3 weeks, and I didn’t make it to Silver yet, but it’s ok. I didn’t lose a drop of motivation. The actual purpose of my 3 week challenge was not entirely to be promoted to Silver. Of course part of it was, but the real reason for all of that was to see if I would be able to balance my day job with my day to day life and my passion, SC2. But we all know life is full of bumps in the road and things never go according to plan.
All in all, things went well, the first week, I followed my schedule about 90% of the time. I laddered a lot but I also took the time to watch/read all the links you guys posted. It really helped. In a week, I climbed up the ladder like a mad man... um, I mean woman. Since I work tech support and that we’re a bunch of geeks here, well most of us, we talked so much about SC2 that even my boss started to get interested in my quest, asking me when I arrive in the morning what my rank was and saying that I have to be top 10 by tomorrow etc... It’s not a big thing but it just shows that people believe in me. Hell even my boss's boss install the trial version of the game to try out?
Unfortunately, I got very sick the second week, I tried to play on Tuesday but after 3 games I realised that my motricity was not there at all. I had next to 0 apm, fucked up my rally key and my brain was boiling due to fever. My actions didn’t make any sense! Here’s an example: mass ling/muta against stalkers/colossus… After I GGed I was like: ‘’Come on Elie, you know better! Where the hell were your corruptors, it’s not like you didn’t have any spires!’’ I decided to stop playing for the night and analyse my lame games with Kecos over Skype. After half a replay, I had so much fever that I almost passed out. My boyfriend put me in a cold bath and then straight to bed. After, I decided that it was best for me to wait until I felt better before playing again. Wednesday, as usual, Charles came over for my weekly coaching. I was still feeling feverish, but usually we just do a lot of replay watching and since I installed SC2 gears, a lot of games graph analysis or whatever you call it. At the end of the night, I played 3 games but with the help of Charles, I won them all :D. That’s everything for week two. I was a bit disappointed, I felt like I let myself and the people who support me down because I really want this. The fact that I missed a whole week is a big downer, but I’ll just work harder.
Week 3 went well. My coach installed SC2 gears and now I can my check my stats. It’s pretty helpful and motivating: win rate is at 78% overall and 100% win rate for ZvZ!
At the end of week 3, I stared to play against high silver/gold players and I sort of hit a wall. My main build per matchup were ZvP: 7 Destiny’s roach rush, ZvT Banneling Bust and ZvZ usually try to go ling/mutas and try to upgrade as much as it is economically possible, usually go with double evochamber. When I was playing against Bronze, it went like a charm but against higher ranks it’s harder to do. Even if my build is good, it’s FAR from being awesome, believe me I know! I’m not this type of bronzie who thinks everything they do is perfect and if they lose it’s cause the game is imbalanced or whatever. If I lose, it’s cause of me and no one else! If my build was perfect, I wouldn’t still be in the bronze league right? At least I think my timing is ok and I finally stopped to forget my gas, lol rookie mistake. The problem with my ZvP and T build is that they are all-ins and the trouble with that is that if it fails, I’m done! Even if I expand when my roaches come out, I always struggle to get back into the game.
So this week I started to play a little safer, focusing a lot on my larva inject,(btw I have an average of 22.5 sec per inject witch is not that bad) Drones, Ovi, creep spread and scouting. Example: I would only scout a 12 with a drone and that was it. Now I also sacrifice an Ovi from time to time to see what happens in his base and lings in his closest base, to scout for expands etc. Also, I prefer to let him come on my creep to engage. I refined my muta harass as well, I don’t engage with them anymore. Yes, I used to do that, dumb me. Now I’m just being a real pest
. If I ZvP and see a FFE, I go Mass roach and usually win. Las night, I was maxed out at 14 minute mark and I kept them coming. He had High Templar (6 on them loll) but I just had to much stuff for him. He was high silver so it was good to se that my practice was paying off.The real matchup I still have trouble with is ZvT, when they go mass Bio, I know I should go infestors but I’m not really good at microing them. Guess I’ll have to practice that.
My mechanics is coming along pretty well, I’ve started to use my F-keys as well, and re-assigned my hotkeys for faster use of them, like the upgrades, I used to click them now they’re binded to Q,W and E so I barely have to think about it.
During engagements, I used to neglect my injects but I came to realise that, let’s say I micro my roaches and save a couple it’s good but if f forgot 1 inject and had for example 3 bases, I just lost 12 larvas which is 12 roaches… so when you do the math… inject should be priority. I know that for high level players, it’s stating the obvious but I’m constantly trying to find ways to be more effective in what I do, every action, every decision should be thought out and be done for a reason, and one reason only, be more and more effective!
I’d also like to thank you guys for all the help and support. All the links you posted have been read or watched. Special Big thanks to Kecos who taught me how to defend a drone rush… Damm I feel dumb to think I ever lost to that. NEVER will it happen again! It’s also good against six pools which was my nemesis! Of course, we’ve done some replay analysis over Skype too and it helped a lot!
In conclusion, I think that all in all, the past 3 weeks has been full of mentality changes. No I didn’t make it to Silver yet, but it’s ok because I decided to be better in my thought process, game scene and mechanic. I want to have a solid base before I start climbing the ladder. I know that I have a lot of work in front of me, “J’ai des croutes a manger” like we say here in Quebec! But I don’t think like a Bronze player anymore and I know that the promotions will come with patience, dedication and hard work, not with rushes and cheese.
If you play Zerg and you feel that you’re stuck, take a peek at this series on vireos, helped me redefined my priorities! : Here you go!
Also I read a lot a blogs here in TL and I have to say this one is REALLY good!
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=271453
This is the link to the first part, really good and SOOO funny! Made me realised a lot!
Once again thanks for reading
hope you enjoyed and if you want to follow me:Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/QueenElissa88
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/Queen.Elisssa
Sc2 ranks: http://www.sc2ranks.com/us/1204653/QueenElissa -----> To make sure I’m not lying
I’ll keep you guys updated!!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GvqsZ.jpg)
Also, Big thanks to my boyfriend for being so supportive and understanding of how much this means to me. ♥ And he used to be ladder shy, so I forced him to play on it. Now M. Booger face is 1st in his Bronze division. 4 gate you way to the tope babe. Just kidding!
QueenElissa
