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My Trip Through Platinum

Blogs > Matador
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Matador
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
United States12 Posts
May 12 2012 16:43 GMT
#1
Hello all, sorry if I do something wrong (as I am new to posting really on TL). I tried this out on reddit, but it didn't really get seen, and I thought it was interesting (though I could be wrong). Two months ago I was a high diamond player (playing against masters players, multiple top finishes in Playhem) and I decided I needed a break from SC2. I started playing LoL frequently, and it was a nice change of pace from the recent cheese I had been facing in SC2. Unfortunately though after a bunch of ranked game trolls I could not take it anymore. The LoL community had just completely turned me away from the game. I figured I might as well get back into SC2, and I had still been watching it every now and then. My friend who had a low platinum account (playing top golds/low plats) said I could have his account to try out again before I got back on my main. I figured this would be a good idea as I would like to be able to start back up on my main account where I left off. So a week ago I began playing SC2 again. It took me exactly 30 games before I was promoted, and back in top diamond, and I figured I would share my observations in order to help maybe some gold or platinum players who believe they are due for a promotion understand how the ladder worked for me. Also I figured I would share some of the differences I found in platinum from diamond.

General Stats:

Number of games versus each race:

Z:14 T:10 P:6

My record over that time for each race:

PvZ: 12-2 PvT: 4-6 PvP: 4-2

Overall Record before getting promoted:

20-10 (67%)

Longest Win Streak: 7

Longest Loss Streak: 2

Games Before Getting Matched Against Diamond:17


Record in that Time:
13-4 note... It took a 6 game winning streak before I faced my first diamond player, that was my 7th win in a row. I suspect that if I had not had the win streak it would have taken longer.

Lowest Rank played against: Top 8 Gold.

Highest Rank played against: Top 8 Diamond (4 of them, 1 playing against masters players) I found this quite interesting, because I have always had a theory that promotions tend to lag behind. I remember on my main account last year when I went Bronze to Diamond I often found that I was playing one or two platinum people before I was promoted to gold, and one or two diamond people before I was promoted to platinum.

Total Diamonds played before promotion: 9

Interesting notes sections:

Almost half of the people I played were zerg (47%)

In my 30 games I encountered cheese 6 times (20%)

2 7pools(which were both my losses against zerg) 1 SCV Marine All In (which slightly made me rage XD) 3 cannon rushes (50% of my games vs protoss were cannon rushes) I did not count 4 gate as cheese in PvP as I do not feel that it really is when considering that match up. I did face 1 however.

Some of the main differences(platinum-diamond) for each race I noticed. I am comparing my observations from when I was in diamond before I quit, and when I started to play against diamond players again on this new account:

Zergs- Platinum zergs seemed virtually the same to me. PvZ has been my best matchup for a while now which could have factored into it. I noticed that many of the platinum zergs I played over made lings in the beginning, which hurt them more in the mid game. They also seemed to have less map awareness. However, there were no blazing differences I noticed from Plat and Diamond Zergs.

Terran- This is where I saw the most difference of all the races. Diamond and Platinum terrans seemed to play the game on almost completely different levels. What I found was that against most diamond terrans I could not make a single mistake. While I was playing against platinum terrans there was multiple times I was thinking "wow, I am about to lose" only to have them allow me to continue on in the game. Diamond terrans I feel capitalize on mistakes more, and are way less likely to take the game into the later stages. Diamond terrans also dropped significantly more. It actually hurt me playing platinum terrans, because once I got matched up against diamond terrans again I had almost forgot how to defend against drops.

Also I found in quite interesting that 8 out of my 10 games against terran (80%) the terran opened up 1 rax CC. The two that didnt, were both diamond. I wonder if they are trying to work on their macro in hopes of getting better? That seems like a good idea to me, and I was quite happy about it.

Protoss: I was shocked at this matchup. When I had been playing before it was almost completely dominated with 4gates. In plat it seemed completely dominated by cannon rushes. 3 of 4 games against platinum level toss were cannon rushes. I found this to be quite odd, as I feel like it is not very effective against someone who does know what they are doing (even though I did lose to one XD)

Other side notes:

Platinum players seemed way, WAY friendlier than Diamond players. I had multiple conversations with platinum players, and most games had a standard glhf, gg. There was much less rage then I expected, and I was much happier to be honest. I had conversations with some opponents after the games, and gave them advice on how to beat what I had just done. Diamond players rarely say anything to me, and rage way more often. I suspect that it could be that there are more casual players in platinum who like myself are just trying to have fun.

In all 30 of the games I had only one person tell me that Toss was OP, this was significantly lower then when I played before, and significantly lower than what I was expecting.

I hope you thought some of these things I found were interesting, and good luck to all the platinum/gold players trying to rank up!

(In case anyone was wondering what openers I use for each matchup)

PvZ: Immortal Drop; Nexus first into Void Ray opening

PvT:Nexus First; One Gate Expo; One Gate Robo

PvP: 4 Gate; One Gate Robo

Disclaimer... Please don't think I am trying to make statistical claims based on these figures, I am simply telling a tale of my experiences and using some numbers to better explain. I also don't want to claim that what I have said is how platinum is, this is just from my small experience.


SoniC_eu
Profile Joined April 2011
Denmark1008 Posts
May 12 2012 17:03 GMT
#2
Enjoyed reading it. Actually made it thru the whole thing in one go Gz that u made it into diamond. Do you still play sc2?
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. http://da.twitch.tv/sonic_eu
Matador
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
United States12 Posts
May 12 2012 17:15 GMT
#3
Haha, thanks Yes I am still playing again now. I am going to try and start playing in the playhem daily tournaments again as they are what I enjoy most.
Cipher32
Profile Joined April 2011
United States52 Posts
May 12 2012 17:46 GMT
#4
Good read! I have to say agree with a lot with you said about the differences except that when I used to be in plat, it was all about the timing attacks and cheeses. I rarely ever had a game exceed the 15 minute mark which is what drove me to get better and out of plat.
radscorpion9
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Canada2252 Posts
May 12 2012 19:07 GMT
#5
That's nice to hear about platinum players being nice...I'm platinum and I've rarely had any bad experiences. I've had lots of fun conversations and moments too. Its too bad things get worse in diamond .
Froadac
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States6733 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-05-12 20:04:32
May 12 2012 20:04 GMT
#6
On May 13 2012 04:07 radscorpion9 wrote:
That's nice to hear about platinum players being nice...I'm platinum and I've rarely had any bad experiences. I've had lots of fun conversations and moments too. Its too bad things get worse in diamond .

Low masters is the worst. Just beat a guy because he attacked with everything into a line of 12 +3 tanks, then rag ed when he lost.
Matador
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
United States12 Posts
May 12 2012 22:14 GMT
#7
Thanks for the comments all. And yeah, I think the rage definitely gets worse as you progress up the ladder. It is a shame, but I don't think there will be any changing it.
Froadac
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States6733 Posts
May 12 2012 22:17 GMT
#8
Yup. You'll find the higher you go the harder it is to advance, so savor your time in plat
loginn
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
France815 Posts
May 13 2012 00:43 GMT
#9
I definitely agree with the fact that platinum players are the most friendly on the ladder. I think it's because they have reached a point where they know they are above the average player, while understanding how much they suck. However, lower diamond is filled with tryhards platinum players, while top diamond is filled with i was master last season players. At least that's how i felt when i was in plat.
Stephano, Taking skill to the bank since IPL3. Also Lucifron and FBH
SoniC_eu
Profile Joined April 2011
Denmark1008 Posts
May 13 2012 08:57 GMT
#10
On May 13 2012 02:15 Matador wrote:
Haha, thanks Yes I am still playing again now. I am going to try and start playing in the playhem daily tournaments again as they are what I enjoy most.

Ah sweet Ye I tried that once, man it was exciting! U get even more pumped than when u ladder. That shit be crayyyyzeee
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. http://da.twitch.tv/sonic_eu
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