EPTAny way, the last month or 2 I started taking my games straight up on Iccup because he has not been on a lot, and I'm tired of never getting a base outside of my natural up for the whole game. I'm currently barely a D right now, 5-13.It seems that every game I win is against someone is just way way worse than me (like super-newbish). I think I'm learning a lot with each game though, and I'm hoping to be a D+(AMBITION) by the time SC2 comes out. Basically I determined that I need improvements in: base-management, timing, scouting, keeping macro up, being able to defend expansions, muta-harass better, control my units after 60 psi, and basic overall strategy (also known as EVERYTHING).
Here is a recap of my 3 games I played tonight:
Game 1:
ZvT on Python (1st game in 2 weeks actually, since I took a little break to watch E3 stuff and play a little CoD4 :\), I'm at the top and he at the bottom. Things go as normal a D level Zvt can (he FEs and I 12 hatch-into 3-hatch muta), but I fuck up twice in 1) letting his SCV scout my spire (I even knew it was coming but failed to properly block my ramp with lings) and then 2) I had a scouting Olord too close to the edge of his nat, and he killed it with marines, which really fucked up my muta-timing.
I finally get 13 mutas out (I always accidentally make like 2-4 extra mutas EVERY TIME GOD I SUCK) and move down to the right of his nat, while I burrow about 8 lings around the map as scouts (which was really just a dumb thing to do since it wastes my precious 115 APM). As I move my mutas down I also send a drone to 11 o clock to expand. As my mutas make their 1st attack at a turrent in his natural(which he was way too many for my mutas to do anything about) my lings spot his marines going north towards my expansion. I rush my mutas and whatever lings I had at my natural to defend, but because i suck so much my lings get there 1st and all die w/o taking out any marines, and my mutas are worthless to that many M/M. He then switches to SK terren and kills my natural in about 3 minutes, I GG in shame.
Game 2
ZvP on Python
I spawn at 6 he at 9. He picked random so I wasn't sure what to expect, so I played 9 pool and when my overlord spotted the nexus I transitioned into my crappy version of 9overpool, where I always forget ling speed until I have like 144 gas. My olord scouts that he went 2-gate 1 base, so I then realize that there was going to be no run-by. I expand at 12 and start pumping drones, tech to lair and make a 3rd hatchery. I forgot that I had an olord in his base for the longest time, and when I switch over I see that he is building a starport, so for god knows what reason I think its not going to be worth a damn and build a spire (NO DEN YET). His 1st goon kills my Olord, and holy shit it wasn’t the only olord of mine he got. He then saired my ass (really good sair micro btw) and got 1 more olord before my 1st hydras pop out, and then pumps more and more and expands while I sit at 2 base constantly repumping olords and hydras ( I forgot olord speed until like 12 mins in). Finally the sair harassment ends at about 15 mins in and I’m under 50 psi. I finally build up about 2 groups of hydras and a few lings (which scouted his natural not being too well defended) and so I move out and expand to 5 o clock, only to get DT harassed there at at my army. It was a classic sair-DT that I had never actually faced before (and I think I know what savior might of felt like now). About 5 minutes later he walks over my army twice and kills my natural, I GG again.
Game 3
ZvT on Python (Its hard to find non-python games on iccup, and my router won’t let me make games on SC :\)
I spawn at 6 again and the T spawns at 9. This game I made no big mistakes (and my APM was back to “normal” 118), it was just a matter of me being totally outplayed. I go 3 hatch muta and he Fes into SK terren. For some reason my mutas are not instantly destroyed and I get this false sense of empowerment as my mutas kill a few SCVs building things and about 12 marines (at the cost of 1/3 my mutas). I specifically remember 1 blunder I made when I tried hold-position micro and it failed horrible when I held position too far from the marines, and I lost about 4 mutas that way (I was reinforcing my “dominating” mutas). All the while my resources shot up and I struggled to build the essentials (Evo chamber, den, queens nest, 4th hatchery and an expo). I end up sending a drone to 5 and never actually building a hatch there. I was doing okay I guess until I forgot to get hive until like 5 mins after nest was done( same for building hydras and researching lurker).
Then he moves out, and I quickly pump some lings and put up some more sunks at my natural. He had the normal terren ball of M/M , 2 tanks, 1 vessel. I build scourges and then realize I have no lurkers, so I send my mutas over and snipe out 1 tank ( he was sieging my sunks). I then move them to my cliff and go down to my nat to morph my late as fuck lurkers, and then come back to my mutas to realize that they were too close to the cliff. I spam click back to my base but to no avail, only 1 of the 11 made it back (and with very little health). In 3 minutes I GG (only highlight of those 3 minutes would be the scourging of his 1st vessel and killing the other tank with the survivor muta and 3 others I didn’t even remember making).
So basically I suck balls at SC (but losing hard in SC a lot is still more fun than getting spawn-killed 4/5 of the time in CoD4). I think I learned some stuff today (specifically against sair/DT), but I just flat-out need a whole hell of a lot of practice. I hardly ever make it out of mid-game, and when I do I have so little experience controlling 120+ population zerg army that it’s just embarrassing. Today was my 1st day back from a 2 week break though, so I think about 3-5 games a day I can continue to improve, and maybe one day reach the coveted D+.
FYI going random is just BM!
