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So I finally hit A- for the first time a few hours before the season ended! yay 
The only downside to this was that it was achieved playing morrow\arew style playing mainly foreigners and in the end of the season. This because most of my games I streamed and it lagged to bad vs Koreans so they would leave most of the time. I have to say that playing mainly foreigners is so much easier than playing Koreans, during Korean hours I usually hover between B\B+ and get smashed around by most B+ Kors, while now I cruised fairly easy all the way til B+ where I started losing some and actually spent 36 games from first hitting B+ to reaching A- tho by now I was not streaming and about half the people where Koreans.
Ending up with a total 86-28 rec.
http://www.iccup.com/starcraft/gamingprofile/get.oystein.html
I have to say I absolutely love playing on heatbreak ridge and its a welcomed change from Desti being THE 2 player map of choice to play lately. Also its nice to see my PvT finally doing well again after some abysmal winrates (was below <40% for a while) on my other accounts due to the fact that I absolutely blow PvT on Destination.
Now in a stark contrast to this, my old accounts VAL\SCL it was a constant struggle to even get to B+ nevertheless try to maintain it going on a less than 50% winrate every since I hit B. Granted this was earlier in the season, the difference playing the Korean hours are just mind blowing.
As for this season as a whole I have to say that iccup is just awesome. The sick competition and practice you can get here is so good, and I even had the chance to play Casy and Forgg early season, where else would I have been able to do that? Also playing vs lots of amateurs\semiprogamers are great and I have no doubt the sick level of play at iccup the last few season have really helped my game improve tremendously. I had goals of reaching A- during Korean hours this season that I was never able to achieve, maybe next season.
In total this was a great season and now I can`t wait for the new season to start to try to get more games vs Progamers. Also I will once again give it a try trying to hit A- during Korean hours tho it will probably be to hard once again since I can barely get to B+ 
How was your Iccup season? Did you achieve your goals?
EDIT : Updated with a rep pack of my games from B- to A-
http://files.filefront.com/IccuprepsBrar/;13834715;/fileinfo.html
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United States11637 Posts
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On June 01 2009 06:24 Oystein wrote:
How was your Iccup season? Did you achieve your goals?
no
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United States11393 Posts
I hate zvp on Heartbreak so much. ~_~
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United States17042 Posts
Iccup frustration rant
+ Show Spoiler +I just uninstalled sc because it got too frustrating. It felt like I lost to absolutely everything. I'm like 2-20 in the past 3 days.
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well done hitting A- It always feel magical when you reach a new letter. I reached B- this season for the first time so I'm happy. The end of this season also means I have played SC for a year now so maybe a little celebration would be in order
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Norway28875 Posts
i pretty much reached my goals, didnt have time to really play much
got b+ pretty easily a good while ago, but then I tried to play some games against b+ and a- koreans and got raped pretty soundly in almost every game (but won every game vs b or b- when trying to regain b+), then had exams coming up and couldnt play during may, and besides it felt like i had reached the rank i belonged in hehe, at least unless i played really much.
going for a- next season tho
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I didn't play enough to achieve my goals. But if I were to continue playing the way I am right now I'm pretty sure I would.
So no.
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How was your Iccup season? Did you achieve your goals?
Didn't have goals, only reached C and then stopped playing due to lack of interest. Grats on A- though, I don't think playing good foreigners is a reason to downplay your shiny green rank. Impressive record also!
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i was going for C but wended up with 2 accounts 3 wins away
yesterday we tried to play the last few but we couldn't get any games!
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Well just about two hours ago i hit my goal of C for this season, hoping to hit C+ next season =x
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On June 01 2009 06:28 GHOSTCLAW wrote:Iccup frustration rant + Show Spoiler +I just uninstalled sc because it got too frustrating. It felt like I lost to absolutely everything. I'm like 2-20 in the past 3 days.
noooo why...
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Grats on A-! Battle net is still blocked for me so I can't go even go on ICCUP.
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nice A-!
i finally got out of the red ranks this season and ended with 3022 points. C- at last!
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I did :D achieve my goal of C-
3093 is what im staying at :D
Next goal is C/staying C-
Also grats on beating ChinaTTTT
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Gratz on A- Oystein
And for me I didnt achieve my goals was aiming for B+ after reaching B last season. But i was too bored to play mass games in last week of iccup its too boring imho... everyone massing games so they can get their perfect records as i did last season. I got bored lately of laddering and started playing only ums and some 1v1 + obs with random only which is kinda fun playing 9 matchups instead of 3 !
Now im waiting for the start of the new season so i can mass game in first week of the season this is when im most motivated to play and if im lucky i can get a game or 2 vs progamers!
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i lashed out against you in a desti-game where i got pissed, but i just wanna say you're a hell of alot better than morrow, if that actually counts for anything lol. Personally I couldn't even maintain B on korean hours.
I get this impression your zvp is very hydra heavy whenever i see you play though, and that macrobot tosses seem to do well against that particular style (esp. the ones that play defensively and are good at getting a third base up and running).
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On June 01 2009 06:27 Harem wrote:
I hate zvp on Heartbreak so much. ~_~
So hard to get 4th base. Ugly map
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Congrats. I see you've found out that the ideal strategy is to play foreigners in time limit ladders and train against koreans otherwise. 
I had exams so I didn't intend to play much, but I ended up with almost exactly the same as last season. But they'll be over soon so hopefully I'll meet some good players in the start season.
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Heartbreak is a really nice change from destination. It makes for really interesting zvp because the P's 4th gas is like 2 feet from your main and vice versa and the map itself is just really interesting and annoying with 3 passages and all the ramps. I just wish there were a way to get rid of all the dumb terran rushes that are inevitable on a 2 player map. Out of like the 10 ZvT's I've played on it like 2 have been bbs's right outside my nat, 2 proxy 8 raxes, and 3 factory floats that are so hard to scout because your main is almost as big as on tau cross.
Also, it just annoys me for some reason that iccup mispelled the map name so now every korean calls it heatbreak ridge in the ladder channels.
Oh, and grats on A-.
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I'm really envious of all the foreigners that can reach up to the A-~ levels, it's such a big accomplishment and a testament of your skill level.
Personally I got to my goal of reaching C for the season, though I had to abuse zvp on heartbreak ridge to do it. Hopefully next season I'll be able to obtain C+ without map abuse. Anyways, congratulations and good luck on next season.
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I made my goal - C with 400 games. ended C 4072 with some ugly record like 165-262
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I was able to hit my goal of C rank (88-110) with most of my wins at C- coming from TvZ (I cant seem to beat anyone in TvP lol). Going for C+ starting tommorow (if I can fix my horrible TvP)
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Congrats.
I'm proud of you oystein!
I hit b- twice, which was nice
iamazerguser was my best % to b- which was 63%. My other account was 52% but I actually played b- games.
Other then a sad 'hacking incident involving me , antihack and iccup staffing , my experience was great. I didn't have last seasons drive to improve upon b-. I am happy to say that I did it for the first time ever while playing zerg vs zerg. I think playing that matchup makes it alot harder to be strong in zvp and zvt since you must focus on an entirely different way of thinking and microing.
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gratz, i don't play iccup haha
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What time do you play at to play against koreans? Also congrats on A-
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I'm new to iCCuP and Zerg(I started playing on May 3rd), but I was able to hit C-. I have a question! I've pretty much played Desti this entire month and I'm guessing 50% of my ZvP was vs Proxy Gates! I really need to work on my ZvP macro, so what map/maps would you suggest for a new player(Anything but Colo, I absolutely hate that map). I tend to enjoy smaller 2 player maps much more than larger 3-4 player maps, but I'll play what I must to improve my overall game/macro!
Maps that I haven't played but have interest in:
Andro: How is this map overall?
God's Garden
Heartbreak: How is ZvP?
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On June 01 2009 07:13 LaLuSh wrote:
i lashed out against you in a desti-game where i got pissed, but i just wanna say you're a hell of alot better than morrow, if that actually counts for anything lol. Personally I couldn't even maintain B on korean hours.
I get this impression your zvp is very hydra heavy whenever i see you play though, and that macrobot tosses seem to do well against that particular style (esp. the ones that play defensively and are good at getting a third base up and running).
No worries, we all have our moments of nerd rage when things are not going our way. I do not need any reassurance that I am better than Morrow, I have a pretty clear feeling of that from my games vs him (tho hes getting better).
Yeah my ZvP style is often hydra heavy midgame and its a bitch vs defensive players who are good stormers.
Didn't have goals, only reached C and then stopped playing due to lack of interest. Grats on A- though, I don't think playing good foreigners is a reason to downplay your shiny green rank. Impressive record also!
But it is, I have immense respect for people like Ret/White-ra who actually climbs even at A- vs Koreans. I am like a B player, B+ at best during Korean hours while I feel its rather easy to play at B/B+ during foreign time (of course there are lots of good foreigners also, but a lot of the B/B+/A- foreigners would probably lose vs random B/B+ Koreans.)
Record could have been even better if I did not offrace and random so much before I hit B-.
Heartbreak is a really nice change from destination. It makes for really interesting zvp because the P's 4th gas is like 2 feet from your main and vice versa and the map itself is just really interesting and annoying with 3 passages and all the ramps. I just wish there were a way to get rid of all the dumb terran rushes that are inevitable on a 2 player map. Out of like the 10 ZvT's I've played on it like 2 have been bbs's right outside my nat, 2 proxy 8 raxes, and 3 factory floats that are so hard to scout because your main is almost as big as on tau cross.
Yeah I really like the map, if often makes interesting games. For example I have played several games where base trading has occurred PvZ due to armies being at different paths through the center. I have not played that many ZvTs on the map, but usually I just dronescout at 9 and 12pool if I scout anything but main rax and go ahead and 12hatch if things looks normal. Also 9pool is not to shabby on this map due to no ramp and not that many people wall off + its autowin vs all those proxy rax builds.
What time do you play at to play against koreans? Also congrats on A-
During morning daytime where I live (Norway CET 06-16) I don`t work or go to school so I have tons of time to play during the daytime.
Also put together a rep pack of all my games from B- (could be a game or 2 missing and some 10sec reps, since I did not really spend much time compiling it).
http://files.filefront.com/IccuprepsBrar/;13834715;/fileinfo.html
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Good job on the a-. I was gonna try and get b or b+ and it did seem very possible considering I had over a month left but then my fcking comp finally died and I got stuck at b-. Oh well
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got my b- not dodging anyone and playing vs as many good players as i could
"loved playing vs koreans" ;D
also was able to play a c+ korean on another one of my accounts at the D+ level, won 227 pts lol
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On June 01 2009 09:03 Myst- wrote:
I'm new to iCCuP and Zerg(I started playing on May 3rd), but I was able to hit C-. I have a question! I've pretty much played Desti this entire month and I'm guessing 50% of my ZvP was vs Proxy Gates! I really need to work on my ZvP macro, so what map/maps would you suggest for a new player(Anything but Colo, I absolutely hate that map). I tend to enjoy smaller 2 player maps much more than larger 3-4 player maps, but I'll play what I must to improve my overall game/macro!
Maps that I haven't played but have interest in:
Andro: How is this map overall?
God's Garden
Heartbreak: How is ZvP?
I would probably suggest to play lots of different maps to get the feel of how maps and certain map features works. For example how easy attainable 3rd gas vs hard to get min only 3rd affects the games. I have always loved playing new maps and while I might not be an expert on certain maps I feel I most often do better on new maps compared to people who are more selective in their map choices. Also I have always loved 2 player maps and I think pretty much all my favorite maps are 2 player ones. As boring as Python is to play its a great map to learn the basics on since its pretty much always standard play that occurs on it.
As for the maps you mentioned both Andro and Gods Garden are hardcore macro maps so they should be very good maps to practice your macro on. I have not played that many games of ZvP on heartbreak but I think its an interesting map and the wide choke+possible back entrance is great for speedling openings both for aggressive play or switch into a more standard play just having the P play in the dark. However mid\late game it often feels hard playing vs Toss due to all the chokes and small corridors on the map. I need to play more ZvP\PvZ on the map before I can give a more detailed answer.
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Thanks for the information! I agree about the 2 player maps and as it stands, I've enjoyed Desti the most. I'll give Heartbreak a try and see how I enjoy ZvP.
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On June 01 2009 07:17 Too_MuchZerg wrote:So hard to get 4th base. Ugly map
agree 100%. it is a good map for most matchups though just not zvp.
this season i did not have a goal. i finally picked zerg as my main race and have improved my multitasking a great deal. d+ is definitely in my future for next season. hopefully if i play alot more c-. most likely not though.
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On June 01 2009 06:36 Liquid`Drone wrote:i pretty much reached my goals, didnt have time to really play much got b+ pretty easily a good while ago, but then I tried to play some games against b+ and a- koreans and got raped pretty soundly in almost every game (but won every game vs b or b- when trying to regain b+), then had exams coming up and couldnt play during may, and besides it felt like i had reached the rank i belonged in hehe, at least unless i played really much. going for a- next season tho
Does Liquid`Drone release replays? Please say Liquid`Drone releases replays :O
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Congrats man, your stream was always fun to watch.
I did achieve my goals too, as I have reached D+ foir the first time^^ (16w-17l record, quite a run after the last clearstats) I was playing mostly HR too, and I love it too
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Congrats on your A- rank man!
oh and
On June 01 2009 09:47 Chef wrote:Show nested quote +On June 01 2009 06:36 Liquid`Drone wrote:i pretty much reached my goals, didnt have time to really play much got b+ pretty easily a good while ago, but then I tried to play some games against b+ and a- koreans and got raped pretty soundly in almost every game (but won every game vs b or b- when trying to regain b+), then had exams coming up and couldnt play during may, and besides it felt like i had reached the rank i belonged in hehe, at least unless i played really much. going for a- next season tho Does Liquid`Drone release replays? Please say Liquid`Drone releases replays :O
I second this request.
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Norway28875 Posts
im gonna be streaming a bit the next season, that'll have to suffice
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Calgary26003 Posts
I hate Heartbreak and cannot win a game on it
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LoL Oystein, nice quip about Arew and Morrow. im not sure about Morrow, but i know Ret commented in the same way about him on GG.net so you guys must have a point. but i do remember Arew being A- with something like 93-6 :-)
that being said, i dont think it was fair to pinpoint Arew and Morrow. if you check some profiles,i think MOST top foreigners are actually playing mostly, or surprisingly regularly, against other foreigners above B or B+
That's somewhat peculiar since im playing 90% Koreans at my C, C+ level. This level, i'd say must be populated by 60% Koreans, 40% Foreigners, whereas the B+ and above level is populated by 99% Koreans, 1% Foreigners.
It's rather humorous that the 1% tends to cherish a propensity to play against other members of the aforementioned 1%. 
I love you Oystein but you're still enemy #1 in Canada for claiming that "Hockey Blows"
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On June 02 2009 05:02 TheFlashyOne wrote:LoL Oystein, nice quip about Arew and Morrow. im not sure about Morrow, but i know Ret commented in the same way about him on GG.net so you guys must have a point. but i do remember Arew being A- with something like 93-6 :-) that being said, i dont think it was fair to pinpoint Arew and Morrow. if you check some profiles,i think MOST top foreigners are actually playing mostly, or surprisingly regularly, against other foreigners above B or B+ That's somewhat peculiar since im playing 90% Koreans at my C, C+ level. This level, i'd say must be populated by 60% Koreans, 40% Foreigners, whereas the B+ and above level is populated by 99% Koreans, 1% Foreigners. It's rather humorous that the 1% tends to cherish a propensity to play against other members of the aforementioned 1%. I love you Oystein but you're still enemy #1 in Canada for claiming that "Hockey Blows"
This season was rather special since it included so many time limit ladders for qualifying to tourneys, so of course everyone would rather spend 100 games qualifying against foreigners than spend 150+ vs Koreans.
However every season there is lots of people who plays more Koreans than foreigners. They might not stand out because they have tons of games with bad winrates at B/B+/A- with White-Ra being the best example.
Both Arew and Morrow have admitted openly to dodging/not playing Koreans before so its not like its a secret I am revealing. Granted Morrow actually seemed to play a fair amount of Koreans in the end of this season, however if you looked at his streak from early B+ to almost A it pretty much consisted of him playing Mana\Carrygun over and over again along with games here and there vs other foreigners and pretty much no Koreans. Watching him dodge Ret on his stream didnt help out his case either
Also I will keep my identity a secret if I ever visit Canada in fear of retributions for my Hockey comments
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Went from near impossible to get from D- to D to goin well on my way to D+, something just seem to have happen over one of those nights If it werent for those pesky zerg-players I'd probably hit D+ grrrr, but oh well it was a satisfying season goin from beeing really shitty player to just a shitty player.
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Vatican City State491 Posts
Ive started playing ICCUP recently for the first time. I've started very late and did not play many games.
Currently, Im trying to get my mechanics back, because due to Diablo II my hands became wooden and I often have ~90apm, instead of usual 120. Consequently I played nearly pure ZvZ; got to D+ quite easily (like 15-5), but then kinda got stomped by players who should lose to me, but I had crappy mechanics; for example I had two games vs Shauni, which I think I should have won, but I lost due to sloppy controlss and lack of macro (2000 minerals lol).
Maybe I should publish the replays Shauni, the 2nd game was quite interesting; lurker battles in ZvZ :-)
As for "dodging koreans" - do they ever play by using the list? I usually made games called "D zvz", but Im not really sure if Koreans join them or not; I think most of them dont?
Should I search for opponents in the channel?
Also, one more question, lag latency in fact gives me incredible lags, does anyone how to repair it? My computer seems to be quite strong (P4 2,8ghz) and connection is quite ok (ping between 100 to 300). This is really strange, as I experience no lag without LL.. but when I turn it on the computer can sometimes stall... and sometimes not.
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Oystein, i get your point about the time limit ladders, and therefore my wrath won't be as severe for this season. but im just saying a player is equally guilty of dodging Koreans whether he's admitting it publicly or not. you seem to focus on Arew and Morrow because apparently they admitted to what they were doing. But what about those masses of foreigners (everyone except Ret or White-Ra?) who have mastered the art of dodging Koreans while flying under the radar? Aren't they guilty? We seem to forget them when its done behind the scenes. Maybe its just that Morrow and Arew are the few that decided to be honest about it.
Again, i get your point about the time limit ladder for this season, but common man, you know thats what people do , season after season. B+ or above is populated by 99% Koreans, but when i check foreigners' profiles...its like.... Nothing new. That's pretty much been the case ever since iCCup was around. Already playing vs 10 or 20% foreigners would be a huge statistical deviation.
also, about White-Ra not standing out. for me, he's the guy who stands out the most , season after season, because even with a negative win rate, he's still always ends up to be in the top 3 highest ranked foreigners with like PJ and some other chinese or Ret.
If you wanna visit Canada without any fear of retaliation, im offering you discounts on my shooting and skating lessons on Fridays.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/552/20876603.jpg)
