EPTOkay so, for those who don't want to read my previous blog because I know some people aren't into the whole reading thing.
On NA, I ladder as random to unwind or clear my mind when things are going bad on my main race on EU, which has been happening a lot recently.
In my previous blog, I was in silver league in both EU on my main and NA as random. As of a few minutes ago, I am now Gold on both servers after getting promoted (somewhat unfairly as my opponent DCed) on NA.
May 2014 Winrates:
PvP - 50%
PvT - 100%
PvZ - 50%
TvP - 0%
TvT - 0%
TvZ - 0%
ZvP - 0%
ZvT - 33%
ZvZ - 50%
April 2015 Winrates:
PvP - 100%
PvT - 33%
PvZ - 40%
EU*
PvP - 48%
PvT - 62%
PvZ - 38%
TvP - 33%
TvT - 43%
TvZ - 67%
ZvP - 100%
ZvT - 0%
ZvZ - 86%
*EU winrates added for some kind of wonky comparison
Now both of these winrate sets (from the NA side of things at least) are from around the same level (Bronze/Silver) and honestly, looking at it, I can't believe the improvements I've made.
Protoss
For my Protoss section, I'm going to use my EU winrates as my discussion point. Simply because the winrate is way more accurate due to sheer volume of matches played on EU compared to NA and also because the matches on EU were at a higher level than NA (EU Gold as opposed to NA Bronze/Silver.)
PvP
Currently, I'm not liking PvP and I've been struggling to win games where I haven't just said "fuck it, proxy dark shrine." Honestly, I feel it's more of a mental block than anything that is holding me back. PvP makes me very paranoid and indecisive, especially if I don't get good scouting information. EU PvP seems to really favour more cheese than anything and despite my best efforts I still die to it 90% of time even when I know it's coming. There's the odd game where I die because my opponent didn't cheese and got the economic advantage.
PvT
My PvT winrate honestly surprised me, I feel my NA one is much more accurate. I'm very vocal about how much I hate playing PvT because of how linear it is and how there's little room to break the norm. I guess my habit of "fuck you I'm going to try and kill you right now in the early game so I can at least either win or get into the mid-game without getting fucking rolled by your bio army" is boosting me up. Needless to say if I don't do that, I get rolled by drops in the mid-game and get very angry about it. Although after watching Crank and asking him a few questions I've realised I'm a fucking idiot when it comes to PvT so there's that.
PvZ
Once upon a time (2 seasons ago) I was feeling super good about PvZ and my winrate very rarely dropped below 60% now I'm lucky if I hit 40%. While my PvZ has seemingly gone to shit, I'm still enjoying the match-up and things are looking up, while my old style of PvZ play doesn't work, I've been refining what I'm doing and slowly things are getting better (I still suck at all-ins though)
Terran
Terran is by far where the most improvements have come in, I still heavily dislike playing it however. It just feels really stale and boring, you either go mech which sits there and moves occasionally or bio which is more fast paced but there's little leeway to do much else. This is also the race that I'm most worried about playing as now I've hit gold, I don't feel my T is anywhere near gold league standard.
TvP
Apparently I can't play this match-up on either side although on the Terran side it's more me being way too passive and probably flubbing my tech switches horribly. I'm no Maru that's for sure. I know what I need to do, I just need to micro a lot better and keep an eye on when the Protoss is teching or when they're out of position.
Not doing stupid shit like mass widow mine in an attempt to be different might also be very useful too.
TvT
I've yet to find a mirror match-up I enjoy seeing as PvP has hit a point where I want to punch kittens, TvT isn't much better. I can't really remember many of my TvT matches, I think I usually try to go Banshee into bio but I can't remember, I know I lose a lot to many cloaked banshees so there's that.
TvZ
I'm not sure how my TvZ win rate got so high, probably because of widow mines. I struggle a lot with this match-up because I can't micro as Terran to save my life, again I find it pretty boring to play and at times, pretty frustrating to play. I might mech more in this match-up because I'm not an aggressive player at all.
Zerg
Zerg on NA has been my strongest race, especially in the mirror which has really surprised me. I think it's come down to a similar situation as my Terran seems to have done. It's just my overall mechanics improving more than anything. I don't get as supply blocked as often, I have more larvae available when I need it and I expand a ton more. I can afford to throw away units with my shitty micro whereas Protoss and Terran get punished more for that.
ZvP
I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this, given how much I've struggled in the reverse match-up. Maybe it's the key to refining my Protoss play further, experiencing the match-up from the Zerg's eyes and seeing what kills Protoss means I'm more aware of how to deal with it when I'm Protoss.
I'm mainly winning from the opposing players not building enough sentries (something I used to do too) or catching them with their pants down and bent over a table with a sudden tech switch. Amassing many Mutalisks is also very good, especially when there's no Stargates to be seen.
ZvT
I don't have much to comment on in terms of ZvT because the ZvTs that I have played have been really weird matches where I've tried to play a pretty standard game only for the Terran players to pull out something just plain bizarre (I'm looking at you, the guy who rushed to Thors really quick)
ZvZ
There's not much to say about ZvZ other than I'm seemingly good at making roaches barf more effectively than my opponent. On two player maps (expedition lost especially) I sometimes proxy a hatch somewhere to spice things up or I might play defensive and channel my inner TLO and use a Nydus somewhere just so I don't get bored of just making roaches and upgrading them.
Writing this has been an interesting experience for me and somewhat of a morale boosting one. I've felt over the past season or so on EU that my play had somewhat stagnated and I wasn't improving but this has proved me very wrong, I've improved a lot and I just haven't realised it. My game understanding is improving, my mechanics are improving. I just need to refine my play a lot more and playing the other two races makes me realise where I'm still lacking (micro especially)
Now I'm gold on NA I'm going to push to Plat, despite my Terran win ratio probably going to take a sharp nosedive. If I can hit Plat on NA as random, then that's going to motivate me to do the same as Protoss on EU.
After a good week or so in gold league, I'll probably write another instalment where my win rates have gone to shit
