After getting fed up of the random shit EU ladder seems to enjoy in Gold League (Mass Raven after technically dying to DTs early game, Protoss wasting 20 mins after dying to Skytoss trying to recover and Zerg rapidly trying to tech to Ultras (Fuck knows why on that one)) I decided to set myself a challenge, play on KR every day for 30 days. Today marks day 1 of my challenge and I intend to blog my progress each day to see if I actually get better or hit Plat on KR which would be amazing.
Day 1 stats - 9 games played, 1 win, 7 losses [Win on Inferno Pools was due to an instant leave, thus not counting it in the statistics]
Match-ups for Day 1: 3x PvT, 2x PvZ, 4x PvP
Map Vetoes: Expedition Lost, Secret Spring
Notes: PvP: Korean Protoss are much more ruthless and cheesy than their EU counterparts, only 1 game reached past the 10 minute mark but that was me thinking I could make a comeback more than anything.
PvT: When they mech they don't do that shitty turtle style EU try and die with, they murder you with vikings and thors with Hellbat support.
PvZ: Korean Zerg at Gold League actually respond much better than EU Z to cannons at their natural which is nice. Their creep spread is also rather impressive and harder to deny than on EU
Now onto some analysis of some of the games! (Images will be in spoilers)
Game 1 - Catallena - PvT vs kai Replay: http://ggtracker.com/matches/5819526
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I hate PvT a lot currently, it's so stale and one dimensional. I don't like being shoehorned into one set build so I fall back on proxy dark shrine pretty much every game to either win or severely cripple the T.
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Oh boy that's a pretty early push by the T, luckily my DT shrine is finished, if I get desperate I can warp in a DT and not die.. hopefully.
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Two DTs to hold my base while another two get the cancel on the T's stim upgrade and kill him off!
Final result - Win!
Game 2 - Catallena - PvZ vs 누알 Replay: http://ggtracker.com/matches/5819527
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In PvZ on EU I've found I've had the most success going with a forge opener so naturally I tried that on KR too
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They actually respond to pylons at their natural and pull drones, which was a pleasant surprise. Deciding this was just a good situation for me I decided to micro my probe around and place a cannon to get them to lose more mining time.
From here on in, I proceeded to macro as much as I possibly could until they stopped droning and went full on into roaches before pushing out and killing me
Game 2 - Loss!
Game 3 - Vaani Research Station - PvP vs LoveCrisis Replay: http://ggtracker.com/matches/5819724
Proxy 2 gate that I scouted far too late to even remotely hold
Game 3 - Loss!
Game 4 - Inferno Pools - PvT vs 계룡병기 Replay: http://ggtracker.com/matches/5819723
This game, watching the replay back was highly suspicious. He got a very lucky scout on my proxy dark shrine which he a-moved to with a large group of marines. I was behind from that minute onwards but decided to see if I could pull it back. Meanwhile the Terran switched into Mech, which I saw when I saw the sensor tower go up near his natural. After facing the shitty turtle style of mech on EU I decided to switch into Skytoss, I'd also seen 3 starports at this point and my brain instantly thought mass raven.
As soon as my Stargates went down though, the Terran switched instantly to thor production and upped his viking production a lot also before moving out and destroying me.
Game 4 - Loss!
Game 6 - Vaani Research Station - PvP vs TwilighT Replay: http://ggtracker.com/matches/5819728
I died pretty quick to hard 3 gate pressure and a couple of oracles dragged my stalkers out of position which didn't help me much.
Game 7 - Catallena - PvP vs 上官無筵 Replay: http://ggtracker.com/matches/5819726
I know how cheesy Chinese/Taiwanese Protoss can be as a Has fan so I had a feeling there'd be either a proxy 2 gate or a 4 gate coming my way. It turned out to be a 4 gate but I lost my MSC as it got sniped while looking for the proxy pylon.
Game 8 - Deadwing - PvZ vs Woo Replay: http://ggtracker.com/matches/5819727
This was by far the most stressful game played today. Again I started with a forge opener and went to go cannon the guy's main, not knowing he went for a spawning pool into double hatch.
After getting him to cancel his 2nd base and assuming he'd moved the location to his 3rd (I'd lost my probe so I couldn't check and cannon up the 3rd sadly I just decided to play it safe and cannon up at home in case of a swell of lings while the Z moved his drone to his 4th base location and took that.
In PvZ on Deadwing I find I die if I don't go Skytoss so I went straight into my stargate production while the Z worked on the cannons and took his 4th base (at around the 10 minute mark!)
I continued on with my Skytoss production while the Z teched into his infestation pit and spire to go into SH/Corruptor (he knew of my skytoss transition from my harrassment of his 3rd base with a couple of Void Rays.
I was very much in the dark about what the Z was doing, which was a big mistake on my part. I'm usually a lot more dilligent on my scouting in PvZ in case of sudden tech switches, I guess I got overconfident in my Skytoss abilities or something. But I scouted the Swarm Hosts pretty late and the Z had 5 bases and had maxed out by the time I'd spotted them and his creep spread was very well established.
While I win a couple of engagements in the centre of the map, the Z has too much economy for me to keep up with unit production and I eventually fell to the many corruptors.
Game 8 - Loss!
Game 9 - Catallena - PvP vs 카페인홀릭 Replay: http://ggtracker.com/matches/5819725
In this game my build got severely thrown off by a really quick 3 zealot pressure depowering my gateways and cyber core and also getting 10 probe kills putting me seriously behind. From there he transitioned into a stargate. In which he built an oracle which got a further 5 kills. From there he hid an expansion and made me think I was further ahead than I was and then he continued to get more and more advantages until my inferior skytoss army died to his skytoss army.
Game 9 - Loss!