EPTIt's not been a week and I've played over 50 games. I have never mass-gamed this much.
O_O
How I got there
My rec now is 46-9, ranked B- with 6307 points.
I got a loss early on against a Zerg player on Destination. I picked Terran (offrace) because I thought I could 8-rax and then 1fact for a quick win. Turns out I was against a B+ Zerg just starting at D level. TT He went 9-pool and owned me hard. Then I won like 10 games straight. I had some near-misses due to carelessness but muta micro owned everyone.
Then I lost against two Koreans with super mech builds. :O Then I got brilliantly cheesed. Then won 10 games straight. Then started losing a couple.
I'm currently 3rd, right behind lastshadow. I played lastshadow once and beat him actually. He faked a mech build and used a fast tank rush on me but I muta-micro'ed for the win. I was thinking, 'I thought lastshadow hacked and sucked without hacks', but he was actually kind of decent. His strategy was a fail against mine, but I imagine with a good strategy he might actually have a chance against me. He gg'ed as well, showing some manner. I was impressed. Lastshadow was not a total ass that I thought he'd be. I'm pretty confident I can beat him if I met him again.
I got to where I am by playing mainly ZvT's, my strongest matchup. I've played 40 or so ZvT's on Destination. It's possibly the most fun map ever.
Why ZvT on Destination is fun
There are so many strategic options for the Terran. Even the 8-rax rush can be executed in so many ways. In between nat and ramp-expo, behind the main, in between the main and the nat, in the middle of the map, in his ramp-expo... The possibilities are endless. Then there is the follow-up. 1fac1star, 1fac expo, 2fac, 1fac2star, 3rax all-in, mine the mineral behind base and sneak vultures in, push marines and vultures and sneak a vulture in, sneak a 5hp vulture in and kill 15 drones.
It's so fun having to think strategically and guessing what the Terran is thinking. I must have been cheesed in every possible form. Every time something new came up I usually lost. I've seen a BBS build that was pretty clever. Against good players, the mind games are not very typical. They'll make sure you get tricked and even if you see it, they thought it through, so they have very good follow-ups. Against bad players, it's easy to spot a cheese and their follow-ups suck.
I'm not being sarcastic at all actually. It's fun having to counter these various strategies and actually having to think during a game.
My ZvT is B+ level?
I beat some good players who topped B, B+ in previous seasons. When I won, I had good control of the game and had a feeling I'd win, so I don't think it's luck. Plus, it's happened a number of times. Once I get to Hive against non-mech, I usually win the game. That's usually because of my muta harass, which has improved recently. I'll kill a bunch of scvs, a bunch of marines, a bunch of turrets, and pretty soon I'm ahead. Stall with lurkers, expo, stall with defilers, ram with 12 ultras and win.
Mech is fun
Mech builds are fun to counter. I love the moments when a vulture tries to run by my sim city thinking they can squeeze between two diagonally placed buildings but of course they can't so they do a dance before the sunken colony takes them out. Sometimes they'll do a fantasy build and do early vulture drop but I'll block it and go in with 9 mutas and there's no defense at home. Good players will have some golies and turrets and (gasp) a Valkyrie. Valks are kind of tricky to deal with. I can't do damage I want because of them. But usually Terran builds too many, like 3 or 4, so I just mass Hydras. They don't have enough tanks and muta + hydra rape gols + valks.
Problems
One problem is handling late-game mech. Late-game marine+med+vessel is easy to handle because I've played it so many times. I don't have enough experience against late-game mech. I just don't know what to do. I expo, I build mutas, build hydras, but they mass golies, tanks, and vessels and just roll me. I try to counter but that usually fails too. I'm going to have to study that a bit more.
Not enough games at B- level
It's much harder to find games at this level. Good thing is I made a friend who I can play. He's at B- and he's okay. Also, I might have to play zvz and zvp because of the lack of games. O_O. TBH, I think my zvz is C level and my zvp is C+ level.
But as long as I can find Terran opponents I think I can get to B+ before the end of the Valor tournament.
Replays
I'll release all my Valor replays later, but here's a fun one.
This Terran basically pulled all the TvZ cards that you see on Destination in one, giant, long, strategy. Everything's there except the 8-rax. He goes two fact vultures + speed for run by, makes a wraith, upgrades mines, makes dropship for 4-vulture drop, and builds a valkyrie for muta defense. But Starcraft is fair. If you can do all these things, then necessarily, your strategy must admit a weakness: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/4422/replays/notables/0854 VALStRyKeRZ vvT.rep
