EPTI spent the majority of my time researching and trying to gather all the evidence of my past play, which is all listed at the bottom. Everything is also poorly edited (ie not at all) so forgive me any parts that dont' flow very well.
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I recently was promoted to Diamond after a long (nearly year-long) SC2 career beginning in Bronze in Season 1. Even though each game, I don't really feel like I've gotten better, I wanted to look back and reflect on what SC2 has meant to me and my progress through the various leagues.
BW-era
I was in middle school from 2002-2004, which was around the time of Boxer's dominance I believe. I didn't really know too much about Starcraft, the proleague or Boxer myself though. All I knew was that a lot of my friends played Brood War and that Koreans were absolute beasts at the game and the best guy was someone named SlayerSBoxer. I was a little jealous of my friends for being able to play the game, partially because the game sounded fun, but also because I knew I was missing out on the social aspect of it all and the competitiveness with my friends. I tried looking up Boxer videos on youtube or whatever video site was popular back then, and what I mostly got were proxy barracks or floating barracks or a CC that was floated to the natural in order to dodge the scouting worker. I of course, did not understand any of this and was far more entertained by the Korean commentators yelling at what seemed sorta cool, but relatively benign strategy.
I asked my friend to burn me a copy of the game, so he did that and got me a CD key as well. Incidentally, that was also my first introduction into file sharing and all that Kazaa and Limewire business. Nowadays I don't illegally download anything and have deleted everything I didn't buy, but back then, the thought that you could get virtually anything for free on the internet was a revolutionary concept.
In any case, I downloaded the game and excitedly started up a custom game. I'm not entirely sure what my first game was, but one game I remember in particular was me going Zerg on some island map because I figured Zerg had mutalisk, which seemed like the best air units and since it was an island, I would be safe and then be able to own the Terran AI. What I didn't realize was that the AI was actually relatively decent, or at least not terrible, so while I was working on my spire, I got double dropped with marines and totally owned. I prompted rage quit and didn't play for a while.
When I returned to Starcraft, it was simply to play through the campaign. I wasn't good enough to legitimately beat the missions though, so I went through every single mission with "power overwhelming", "black sheep wall", "show me the money" being the first thing I did everytime. I remember whatever mission it is that Kerrigan has to assassinate some dude taking forever, even though I had Kerrigan and five lurkers all hitting the guy at the same time. I sat there for 10 minutes until I realized I probably had to turn off invincibility to proceed. It was the only time I ever played any part of the campaign without all the cheat codes enabled. During the Zerg campaign, I didn't realize that you could build more than one hatch in order to have more larva to build units. I would just wait for those three larva from the initial hatch to keep spawning so that I could build stuff. I happened to watch a video with a Zerg that had four hatches to build units. The thought blew my mind, and in my cheated games I would build 15+ hatcheries so that by the time I finished using up the larva from the 15th hatchery, the first hatchery had regenerated all its larva.
Needless to say, I was as casual as casual player gets. I never played online and didn't even know that b.net ladder or iccup existed. All I knew was that there were these "lans" where people brought their computers and somehow hooked up to each other and played together. I didn't really understand how this worked and figured that they must have a phone cable with male/male ends that plugged into each other, like they were both trying to access the internet into each other's computers. How more than two computers could be hooked up was beyond my understanding.
As you might imagine, this wasn't really all that interesting. As soon as I beat the campaign, I never opened up Brood War again. Starcraft would simply remain a game that I thought was way too hard to play and something I wished I was good at, but something I would just have to give up on. I told one of my friends, "I wish I could just be good at this game so that I could play with other people and beat them, but I don't want to have to invest the time to actually get good."
SC2 Announced
Years later, I think I was either a Junior or Senior in high school when SC2 was first revealed. I remember seeing the void rays and banelings and colossus and being struck at how bright and pretty it was. Everyone was hyped and excited for the sequel to the "best game of all time". I was excited too, although I don't really know why. I didn't play BW and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be playing SC2. Maybe I was just swept along by the hype that was building on gaming forums I visited.
SC2 Beta
I don't even recall SC2 Beta being released. Since I wasn't anticipating the game, I didn't really know when it was released so I was completely unaware when the beta started. For whatever reason, I decided to search for more BW highlight videos, since I knew SC2 was probably going to be released soon, and I found SC2 VODs on youtube from HDStarcraft. It was definitely through his casting that I was brought into the SC2 viewership community and I tried watching all the games that I could. I became a fan of TLO and how despite playing random, could pull off awesome tactics with every race, although his Protoss was a little less spectacular than his other races. I remember how he was one of the first people to really aggressively spread creep and gain map vision and Zergling control. I think he was one of the first to also really use early hellion pressure in TvZ to allow for an easy expansion. I saw Idra, the macro Zerg and how he would sometimes just have absolutely awful unit positioning and rage when he lost. There was a game on Kulas Ravine in particular I remember that he lost when he filed all his Ultralisks through a single choke and got obliterated. I remember hearing about WhiteRa, who at the time I only remember as a Protoss that would always get void rays and use them to constantly harass. I remember Nony, who pioneered 2Starport Phoenix openings that only became more imba when the Phoenix build time was reduced.
One of my favorite games casted by HD, that excited me so much that I even mentioned it to friends was one between oGsChita and oGsMystic. Taking place on Metalopolis, it involved a PvZ with mass Ultralisk and Nydus to constantly move Ultras around the map to kill off expos then retreat before Protoss could defend. Even though it's a ridiculously old game, I would recommend you watch it if you haven't, simply because the idea is amazing and I've still never seen something similar pulled off to the extent that Mystic was able to do it.
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I spent an entire summer at college, going to class and then work, and then coming back to watch SC2 casts late into the night.
Though the game looked awesome and fun, and I wanted desperately to buy it, I knew that I really wouldn't and my longing would only remained a painfully unfulfilled desire. So what I would do instead is theorycraft on my own. I would imagine what good strategies could be and how units could be used to effectively harass and counter opposing armies. It was all complete garbage of course, since I had no RTS experience, but I had fun. I even began to think about what race I would play if I ever bought the game. No matter what I thought, Zerg was ultimately my choice. It looked the most fun and seemed like it had the most diverse options in play style. At the time, Protoss was pretty much a 2base turtle into deathball race while Terran would turtle with tanks and then maybe send dropships every once in a while. Reapers looked cool, but the overall Terran gameplay didn't really interest me. Zerg had Zerglings and Banelings which could run everywhere around the map and hit every expo and every side of the army at once. Mutalisks seemed really fun to control and just harass worker lines with. And maybe what stuck out most to me was creep spread. What I remembered from BW was that I hated not really being able to know where the opponent's army was. If I had enough creep spread, I could never be surprised. Also, Zerg fit into what I thought my preferred playstyle would look like: taking massive advantage in army and economy to contain my opponent simply through sheer mass and passively force them to die under the pressure. I wanted to utilize a "control"-type style where I didn't really have to directly engage, but the enemy would just die from being chipped away. In other games I liked using the same type of character (imagine a rogue character using backstabs and running away, though I never played WoW or Elder Scrolls).
Becoming a Player
I finally caved into my longings and bought SC2 when it was on sale on Amazon for $48 compared to the usual $60. It was the cheapest price I had ever seen the game and it seemed like an excellent opportunity to buy the game. I bought it as a Christmas present for myself, but I promised myself that I wouldn't start playing until after winter break started. To ensure this, I had the game shipped to my house instead of my campus apartment.
In the meantime, I thought of what my character name would be. I settled on Emporio, which is derived from the card game Bang! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang!). The name refers to the General Store card, which picks up as many cards from the deck as there players, and each player picks one of the drawn cards for themselves, starting with the player that played the Emporio. I liked the card game and played it a lot with friends, and I thought the card reflected well the massive economy/army advantage control style that I wanted to play. I'm currently relatively happy with the name, though there are times I want to change it, though having only one available name change makes me unwilling to do it. My biggest concern is that my SC2 name would different from my TL username and that people I played with in the past wouldn't recognize me anymore.
It was also around this time that I discovered Team Liquid. During my season of constant VOD watching, I stumbled across the "TLOwnage" video, casted by Chill showcasing TLO destroying noobs in placement matches.
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I must have watched that video four times in a row just because of how hilarious it was. The shout out to TL eventually led me to look it up and discover the huge resource that is the forums and liquipedia. It was here that I thought to at least consider what build I would use. I saw all the posts that recommended new players pick a single build and use it over and over until they understood every part of it and were able to make improvements upon it. After much deliberation in the Zerg Strategy section of Liquipedia, I finally settled on a build:
One-base Muta
Yeah I know....
I'm not sure if this is the orignal build order that I used, but it's close to it:
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9 Overlord
14 Gas
14 Spawning Pool
16 Overlord
16 Queen
18 Metabolic Boost
18 2 pairs of Zerglings
22 Lair (as soon as Queen finishes)
22 Gas
22 Overlord
26 3 pairs Zerglings
29 Spire (as soon as Lair finishes)
32 Overlord
32 Hatchery (Expand)
31 Queen
33 Overlord
@Spire 100%: As many Mutalisks as possible
14 Gas
14 Spawning Pool
16 Overlord
16 Queen
18 Metabolic Boost
18 2 pairs of Zerglings
22 Lair (as soon as Queen finishes)
22 Gas
22 Overlord
26 3 pairs Zerglings
29 Spire (as soon as Lair finishes)
32 Overlord
32 Hatchery (Expand)
31 Queen
33 Overlord
@Spire 100%: As many Mutalisks as possible
It's relevant to note Liquipedia now lists it as an outdated cheese build against Terran, though at the time it was one of the many BO's listed for Zerg. The build made sense to me though. The faster you get mutalisks, the more damage you will do to the opponent's mineral line and thus win the game. That's why I chose the one base variant over the two base one.
I practiced the build a few times in computer custom games, though I would always mess up and forget a gas timing or exactly how many lings to make. Or maybe I would forget an overlord and mess up absolutely everything. But even so, I felt like because I had a legitimate build order I was following, I was better than 70% of everyone playing the game.
And so I started playing the Practice League games, where my one-base muta build was perfect since you can't expand anyways. I would just use my zerglings to break down the rocks for my 32 supply expansion. I kept losing to mass voids though, to the point that I would blindly make mass queens against Protoss and easily win because they would lose all their investment in their voids. Terran was tough too, since they could lift to get an expo, and then also drop your main, all without destroying the rocks. Even so, I persisted and played maybe 20 of the 50 practice games until I thought I was ready for my placements. I thought I was at maybe a Platinum level, though I would be okay with Gold as well. This was when Diamond was the highest league, though Masters and Grandmasters had been announced as being introduced shortly.
Placement Matches
Long story short, I went 0-5 in my placements and was placed in Bronze. With 0 points, I was ranked around 80th in my division, so I literally started at the very bottom of the ladder. It was disappointing to say the least, and I was a bit mad, but I also understood that I wasn't being cheated by the system, I just actually sucked and I hadn't realized it earlier. I played through winter quarter, playing nearly everyday, though I didn't play too much or my parents would get mad. I managed to work my way up to Silver before school started in January and was pleased with my progress. I had come to realize that one base muta was a trash build and switched to a more conventional 14hatch 14pool in ZvT and ZvP while ZvZ I went 14gas 14pool. ZvP was all about stopping the 4gate and you win, while ZvZ was easier once I realized you need to micro your lings and banelings. However I had trouble with ZvT because Terrans were just too hard to attack into and Marines were too imba.
I newbie-raged on the strategy forums in TL, with my very first post asking how to counter Marine/Tank/Thor pushes. Ironically, I still have problems with this, but that's more because it's a strong composition. Though I can see how I didn't understand the core problem was macro, I can at least say that I was literate and tried to be analytical and polite in my thread and it's not an embarrassment to me. Even with the stricter Strategy forum guidelines, I feel like that post is better than maybe 25% of the threads made there now, even if I didn't include a replay with it.
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http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=180516
Bronze to Silver
There's not a whole lot to say here as to what led me to getting promoted. I just played more and got more comfortable with the game and how to actually play. Another thing I discovered was that my laptop that I orginally played on did not have a graphics card capable of playing SC2, so I was actually playing with huge lag and input delay. I was playing with <10 fps at the very start of the game, dropping to 1 in any size battle. Even injecting with queens took a good 1/2 second per queen, just because I had to wait for my selection of the queen to register, then my clicking of "v", then clicking on the hatchery.
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http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=199005
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http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=237963
So instead I started playing on my family's iMac. I know Macs are terrible to play on and the location of the ctrl button on the keyboard still messes me up. But it was such a relief to play and have all of my inputs actually register and do something instantly. The game felt so much smoother and I could actually understand how you could play this game at a high level. But still of course, I sucked, but I kept on, hoping for those promotions.
Silver to Gold
Alas, school started and I had to leave home and leave my daily SC2 playing to go back to school, where I had classes, and more importantly, no computer capable of running SC2. I watched VODs and read TL, but I yearned to play. I realized my school had an oncampus PC cafe, so but I thought it was too nerdy to actually go there. I would just walk by it and wistfully look inside at all the people playing. But then, I signed up for a Bronze/Silver tournament on TL, the ASCWeekly, which would later become StimTV and a part of Playhem. I signed up for their very first tournament, the Bronze/Silver Week 1 tournament.
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http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=182610
It was an awesome little tournament, where every round was a bo3, and some of the games would even be casted! I faced a Protoss in the first round, and held off the 4gate twice to advance. In the second round, I faced a Terran and then entire round was casted. I've linked the video so you can watch if you want, but I'll be honest, it's silver level play from season 1, there's nothing really groundbreaking going on.
(January 11)
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http://www.own3d.tv/video/53965/ASCW__1_Emporio_Vs._Kurosuke_-_RO8__BO3_
It was my first opportunity to ever be casted, something I didn't think would ever happen. I wasn't really as nervous as I thought I would be because I was just too focused on winning to care. I was able to see my play through someone else's eyes, and eyes that were much more knowledgeable than mine. I learned a lot from just watching the cast of these three games and I saw how weak and unstable my play was. For those of you who are in these leagues, I'll list out the things that stuck out to me as things I need to improve on:
-Too many drones : I know it must be weird to think of a Silver player making too many workers, but I had seen many of Day9's Newbie Tuesdays and one of the things that had stuck out to me was him saying that the best way to lose as a Zerg is to have only drones and no units when the push comes. Well I took that point to heart, and in Game 3, have over 100 drones for most of the game. I simply didn't really comprehend what saturation meant, and thought that if I could make drones, I might as well, even if that meant my natural had 35 drones on minerals. Of course this left me very vulnerable in the midgame to any sort of aggression
-Not active with my units - Even though I made units, I didn't use them unless I needed to defend. I would have mutas sitting in the middle of the airspace, just chilling for minutes until I remember I made them.
-Bad engagements - I would make spine crawlers and then defend at locations away from them, completely negating the purpose of making them in the first place. I was also careless with my army and would just lose units because I wasn't controlling them well. I think this is why I didn't like using banelings, because they didn't work well unless you exerted some level of control over them.
However, even at this point, my macro focus and overwhelming mass style was becoming very distinct and I feel like I was focused on creep spread and on improving my economy while skimping on units, which is the Zerg motto. My injects were obviously terrible since I was a silver player, but at least I tried.
I would lose the semifinals in a ZvZ that I should have won, Game 2 being a base race where I had mutas and all I had to do was kill one last Hatchery while defending my Extractor from about 12 Zerglings left over from my opponent. I was a little mad about not being in the finals, but I had gotten casted, which had been my goal.
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http://ascw.challonge.com/ascw1bs
I watched the cast after own3d.tv archived the recording twice in a row that night. I was just so happy to see myself playing and other people watching and paying attention to what I was doing. I expressed my thanks to the organizers and how they gave me a new understanding into this game and how many flaws I can have without even realizing it. In my opinion, the real foundation of the Starcraft community is not the MLG's or the GSL's or the IEM's or IPL's, but the Playhem's and Z33k's and other low level tournaments and communities that keep the bulk of fans continuously involved and interested. Without the fans liking the game and following the scene, there is no professional league. It's as simple as that. And I believe low level tournaments and those casters who spend their time casting low level players are what keep interest alive in the scene. So this is me taking the opportunity to thank every person that has ever been a part of organizing or hosting any of these tournaments regardless of how big it was.
I would continue to play and try to analyze my games and try to improve. I sent replays to NuubCast, which you might recognize as the dad of Stargirl. He casted a few of my games, which I again took to study and sadly see my flaws blatently paraded in front of me.
(January 30)
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Here, I see how badly I float minerals and how much I desperately need macro hatches and to inject better. However, I also see the value of backstabs and ling runbys and how devastating they can be.
http://www.sc2ranks.com/team/9343107#alltime
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/UFWiy.png)
Promotion Dates
Started: December 10?
Bronze - December 12
26 days
REPLAYS (Probably none)
Silver - December 28
165 days
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/NLHEE.png)
REPLAYS
Gold - June 11
45 days
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Z6eHQ.png)
ZvP
http://www.z33k.com/match/download?game_id=78155&id=50517
http://www.z33k.com/match/download?game_id=78156&id=50517
http://www.z33k.com/match/download?game_id=79328&id=51359
http://www.z33k.com/match/download?game_id=79395&id=51368
ZvT
http://www.z33k.com/match/download?game_id=78903&id=50543
http://www.z33k.com/match/download?game_id=78904&id=50543
Platinum - July 26
108 days
REPLAYS
Diamond - November 11
REPLAYS
Laptop replays:
http://drop.sc/packs/331
Catspajama - LuckyFool (between March 11-March 22, pre-Patch 1.3.0)
Talbak Tournaments
18 (March 16)
Pool Play
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QtkBO.png)
Championship Bracket
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YjtIz.jpg)
19 (March 23)
Pool Play
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/HkNz0.png)
Championship Bracket
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YUkPW.jpg)
semi finals game 1
Game 1 (TwitchTV)
Game 3 (TwitchTV)
(missed the game I actually won, so bm)
Overall Ladder ranking points for TnB
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/HITMd.png)
I'm the InControl of Gold/Silver
NuubCast base race (March 21)
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Taste the Starcraft (June 10 - August 28)
Taste the Starcraft Registration Topic (TL)
Pool Play (July 6-July 10)
Taste the Starcraft Pool Play Replay Pack (drop.sc)
Finals (August 27)
Taste the Starcraft Registration Topic (TL)
Taste the Starcraft Finals Game 1(drop.sc)
Taste the Starcraft Finals Game 2(drop.sc)
Taste the Starcraft Finals Game 3(drop.sc)
Night owl tournaments
Night Owl Gold/Silver/Bronze Tournament Bracket 8 (Challonge) (June 24)
Night Owl Gold/Silver/Bronze Tournament Bracket 10 (Challonge) (June 26)
Night Owl Gold/Silver/Bronze Tournament Bracket 13 (Challonge) (July 3)
Night Owl Gold/Silver/Bronze Tournament Bracket 15 (Challonge) (July 9)
Night Owl Gold/Silver/Bronze Tournament Bracket 22 (Challonge) (July 24)
Sadness of being promoted (TL)
CaZt of Zerg (July 14)
CaZt of Zerg Episode 3 (TwitchTV)
CaZt of Zerg application post (Complexitygaming.com)
gold vs bronze (July 22)
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Stim.tv cast in summer of plat
4v4 (RyanRushia, FireZerg, Trimaster, Deezer) (August 6)
'Play with the Pros' Charity Streaming Marathon (TL)
DayWalker
Daywalker-Platinum and Under Tournament Bracket 3 (Challonge) (August 14)
Daywalker-Platinum and Under Tournament Bracket 4 (Challonge) (August 20)
Coaching for ZvT (August 22)
Description of ZvT coaching session (TL)
ZvZ new style (August 29)
Part 1 + Show Spoiler +
Part 2 + Show Spoiler +
Part 3 + Show Spoiler +
PMSH2O tournaments:
PMS|H2O Gold/Platinum Weekly #11 Bracket (z33k.com)(November 1)
ZvP First Round (TwitchTV.com)
ZvZ Semi-Finals (TwitchTV.com)
ZvP Finals (TwitchTV.com)
PMS|H2O Gold/Platinum Weekly #12 Bracket (z33k.com)(November 8)
ZvT Semi-finals (TwitchTV.com)
ZvZ Finals (TwitchTV.com)
Coaching - Aurora
