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Road to BSL7

Blogs > StRyKeR
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StRyKeR
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
United States1739 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-08-30 16:29:43
August 30 2019 16:26 GMT
#1
My interest in SC:BW tapered off a bit for the past few years and I barely practiced, even for the NYC LAN this past July. I almost never show up in person to play the game, so I thought it would just be fun to go even if I didn't win any games. However, after getting smashed, I started feeling the urge to try my hand again.

I was a little more prepared for the NASSL, practicing a bit more, but got destroyed 0-2. Then I fully got the competitive urge to improve. So when BSL7 was announced, I was elated.

My main strategy is to be more deliberate about practice.

In the past, despite playing a lot, I never got past my plateau, being good at ZvT but scraping by at ZvP and sucking hard at ZvZ.

So I reached out and found Jaeyun. I've only had a few coaching sessions and it's already dramatically improved my ZvP.

I started taking ZvZ seriously.

I started watching ZerO's FPVOD lessons. Being Korean certainly gives me an advantage in being able to understand his videos. I actually learned a lot by watching him.

Initially, I struggled to get out of the 1800's on ladder. I would fall for gimmicky strategies left and right and the opponent skill levels were way higher than I expected for a given rank, as I complained about in my previous blog post.

I recently broke 2000. While I do think I've improved, I think I also benefitted from ladder luck swinging the other way, where I faced high ranked opponents that I found easy to beat.

I now have the dubious honor of having played the most ladder matches on any BSL7 account (at least according to the website). However, despite the mass gaming, I've never been this deliberate for each game before.

Some things I have learned:

  • I have much better macro than before. I thought I had good macro before, but now that I'm actually playing ZvP correctly, I am macroing from 9 hatcheries and droning up much more appropriately.

  • I still have shitty macro. Now that I actually play ZvP correctly, sometimes I float 2k minerals and gas on 9 hatcheries while being maxed out at 200/200, being unsure what to do with my army.

  • I step back often to try to make the best decision instead of making a fast one. This process kills me sometimes because I'm impatient and I'd rather do something, but I realized that good decision making trumps micro. Watching ZerO purposely play with 100 APM and still hit S tier really convinced me of this.

  • Sometimes I get "in the zone", where I feel like I'm actually playing as the opponent against myself. In this zone, I think more about what he's building and what his next steps are than my own, and naturally, I build things in response to what he's doing. It almost feels surreal as I step out of this zone and the future plays out exactly as I predict.

  • Asking for help from others is crucial. I believe that the reason anyone hits a plateau is that they don't know what they don't know. Someone else's observations may question your assumptions that you didn't even know you were making. For example, Jaeyun told me once that I was building too many hydras in ZvP and I should be droning instead. It seems obvious now, but in game, I just built hydras out of habit without realizing I was making too many. The 9 drones or so that I gave up would be crucial in setting up for late game.

  • My prioritization in game is much different from before. I used to be single-mindedly focused on my own build and micro. Now, I try to look for signs that give hints to the picture the opponent is trying to paint, and try to respond to it.

  • Worker spread across bases is very important; you never want to oversaturate a base while another base is undersaturated.

  • Simcity against Protoss is very important. [Evo chamber, hydra den] to the [right, bottom] of a [evo chamber, hydra den, hatchery] is Zealot tight, even diagonally.

  • I've learned a lot of small details about the game that I didn't realize before. Some are not that impactful to the game:

    1. When a unit is moving, pressing stop and then burrow makes units start the burrow faster than just pressing burrow. Useful mainly for Lurkers, for which it saves maybe 0.25 seconds. As a result, I'm changing my burrow hotkey to "d" so I can just do "sd". Learned by watching ZerO's videos.

    2. You can stack lurkers easily by using patrol clicking on a burrowed Lurker. Learned by watching firebathero's videos.

    3. Manually attack clicking a unit grants you longer range than A-moving the ground. This is most noticeable when chasing a probe. When you're right behind the probe, attack clicking it directly will make the zergling hit it, but A-moving will just make it pause and have the probe move out of range. Downside is that it needs micro and there's also a possibility that the zergling gets "stuck". You have to press stop on the unit in order to unstuck the unit. Learned by watching ZerO's videos.

    4. The energy upgrade grants units higher starting energy (62.5 instead of 50). Zerg units get the higher starting energy as long as the energy upgrade finishes before the unit hatches. For other races, the energy upgrade must have finished before the unit production is even started. Zerg OP. Learned by reading an AttackZerg post here on TL.

    5. When Lair or Hive upgrade finishes, a new larva pops out immediately regardless of previous larvae. Learned by reading a LaStScan post here on TL.



*****
Ars longa, vita brevis, principia aeturna.
SethN
Profile Joined June 2019
15 Posts
August 31 2019 00:59 GMT
#2
Love how even after so many years of playing this game there are so many little things you can learn.

Keep up the good work!!
FyRe_DragOn
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
Canada2056 Posts
August 31 2019 03:24 GMT
#3
GL in BSL maybe ill see u in proleague
aka DragOn[NaS]
StRyKeR
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
United States1739 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-08-31 04:18:09
August 31 2019 03:35 GMT
#4
Thanks! I'm just gonna shoot for Gosu league, seems more reasonable.
Ars longa, vita brevis, principia aeturna.
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28665 Posts
August 31 2019 12:07 GMT
#5
Love the BSL ladder stages, gives a reason to mass game which really provides some improvement.

I didn't see myself qualifying for proleague at the start of this but now I think I prolly make it. Hooray.
Moderator
SuGo
Profile Joined March 2013
United States681 Posts
Last Edited: 2019-09-01 01:31:57
September 01 2019 01:27 GMT
#6
GL Stryker ~~ You always had tons of potential, even since the iccup days many years ago.

You'll be a force at the next NYC LAN
Jealous
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
10151 Posts
September 02 2019 23:48 GMT
#7
Grats on the progress
"The right to vote is only the oar of the slaveship, I wanna be free." -- бум бум сучка!
TelecoM
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States10673 Posts
September 03 2019 17:34 GMT
#8
GL Stryker, you're def a good Zerg, almost every PvZ we've played has been an hour long lol

" When Lair or Hive upgrade finishes, a new larva pops out immediately regardless of previous larvae. Learned by reading a LaStScan post here on TL. "

Wow I didn't know this either, learn something new every day. GL !
AKA: TelecoM[WHITE] Protoss fighting
JieXian
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
Malaysia4677 Posts
September 03 2019 19:15 GMT
#9
Thanks for the list of lessons learnt and tips. Good luck!
Please send me a PM of any song you like that I most probably never heard of! I am looking for people to chat about writing and producing music | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noD-bsOcxuU |
StRyKeR
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
United States1739 Posts
September 04 2019 19:31 GMT
#10
Seems like I indeed got lucky Or I just got unlucky. After a long string of losses I'm now just above 1900 again.
Ars longa, vita brevis, principia aeturna.
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