Thanks to everyone who read my first post and replied!

This morning was pretty great, two of my close friends came over and we watched the gsl that I missed last night. Funny story about that, I was trying to wait up to watch the game, and decided to lay back in my big comfy chair watching some MKP. This was around 5 A.M. or so, and the game was starting in half an hour. Next thing I know, it's 8 A.M. and I missed the games, suffice to say I was kinda pissed.

About the games:

I wanted Naniwa to impress his mammawa so badly, and take a win over MVP. I was actually certain after he took Antiga that he'd make a comeback. Those 2 rax proxies seem to be extremely deadly, and Naniwa seems to have a pretty tough time with them. So it was more of a well planned cheese, then a simple coin toss for MVP.

First Ladder Game:

This was a pleasant surprise which is why I'll even bother noting it. My opponent was slightly favoured (P) and the map was daybreak. On every map I 1 rax expand or die trying, since I'm not competing yet, I don't feel the necessity to have well practised cheeses. I noticed he was being very aggressive with his first zealot, and then I saw the proxy pylon. I knew it was a four gate because of how early this man's shennanigans were, so I immediately threw down to more bunkers, and kept his units back. I then used my scouting SCV to ensure he wasn't expanding.

Why does this game matter?

http://drop.sc/170791

Two reasons. The first being he was in masters, which feels great, because 2 days ago I was 50th in diamond. Second, that I would have died to this 2 days ago. This game demonstrated the principle of keeping your cool and playing safe when shits about to hit the fan. Previously I would have tried to hold with 1 bunker, or not transferred SCVs. Through watching GSL, and playing regularily and with better players, I am learning to keep my cool in games. I should add here that watching GSL doesn't directly make you better, but helps you understand what you should do in these precarious positions.

Quick note: I still make a lot of mistakes, and I'm overcoming a fear of people judging my play by uploading replays for examples. So if you're going to ream me out for shit play, at the very least make it constructive

The difference between risks and laziness:

http://drop.sc/170993

So, a game I played today inspired this point and I thought I'd share my feelings on it. Many people would find this counter intuitive, almost a negligable point, but I insisit. I played a protoss player on Taldarim today (keep in mind this guy is diamond), where he decided to take the expo beside your thid instead of your third. At first I thought he was being sneaky, or potentially he thought he was so far ahead he could do this. Later on he messaged me complaining about how he shouldnt have to prepare different strategies on every map. When I asked more, he said that he shouldn't have to knock down any destructable rocks.

What's the point? Well besides the point that the guy was being both BM (he swore at me , after the game), this is actually something I have done without realizing it. Many times in game I've taken smart risks, like a hidden CC with a low possibility of being scouted, or maybe a proxy 2 rax (I lied I almost never cheese). These things are decisions I've made that will help me, and I've decided that their good to take. That's risks, sometimes their good, sometimes bad. They can pay off or fail you.

Laziness looks like a risk, but is actually you're inability to think about the decision you're making thoroughly. For example, if the guy I was playing had thought about it, he'd realize that I was likely to find it by use of drops. Also, if I found it, I'd easily be able to split his army and force massive economic damage. So many times I've flown a comand centre somewhere without really thinking about the consequences, with the mentality of: "Oh, it's just a CC". These games usually end up in a frantic adventure of my bioball from one side of the map to the other trying to defend the ridiculous position I was in.

Moral of the story, take calculated risks when you feel it's necessary, but discipline yourself not to do stupid things out of laziness.

Grinding Vs. ...Not Grinding?

This will be my last point of the night, and I thought it would be an interesting one. I luckily have 2 sc2 accounts. I bought one for my friend and one is my own, though sadly he never really uses his. I decided that today I would grind out ladder games on my buddies. I also decided. that on my account I would play 2 -3 games, go outside and stretch then come back and play 2 - 3. I found that when I was grinding out games, my games were more frantic and longer. When I was playing on my account my games were shorter and chrisper, regardless of what level of play my opponent was.

I'll talk more about this later, since this is my first day of trying this and I haven't had much of a sample space to prove from.

So I'm done writing my blog entry for day 3 of 7 for full time sc2. I'm gonna watch some NASL 3 and drink some coffee, gratz to them btw they have a lot of viewers right now. I'm going to try to end each one of my blogs with an opinion question, I guess that'll give you guys a reason to reply (look how sneaky I am).

What Maps to mech on?

So I'm pretty versatile in TvT, I played bio for the longest time, then switched exclusively to mech. A good player that I know then informed me I was stupid for trying to mech on certain large maps with many attack paths.

My question to you guys that play terran, or know anything about it. What maps are great for Mech!

Thanks for reading, I'll be back tomorrow!

- UpATree