In my previous blog, I covered the first game to put me up to C-. That was a little while ago, and I've been laddering hard since then. I was planning on doing another BR for the next game that put me over to C- but alas... tis the beginning of a new season I can't even make D+. I'm starting to share Gargamel's hatred of smurfs. After I watched this replay though, I really wanted to write a BR for it and here is the product of that insomnia causing urge.

Warning, some people might think this report is too detailed. I tried to add as much commentary on the mind games going on as I could, because that's what made this particular game so interesting to me. Hopefully, by explaining my thought process I can help beginning players gain a better understanding of some of the subtleties of the match up. Likewise, the great minds here at TL will hopefully point out where I got things wrong, or missed something important. But most of all I hope you enjoy it!

The Game
Rep: http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=49816

I spawn at 5 and he spawns at 1 on Fighting Spirit. Barely into the game and he starts chatting. I quite enjoy friendly conversation at the beginning of a game but it quickly becomes clear that he's either trolling or trying to distract me.

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This chat makes me rather suspicious of cheese and I'm lucky enough to scout his position first and see his 9pool.

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I see a drone leave his base and so I follow it out to see if it makes an expo or if it was just a scout. He brilliantly sees my scv go down to check and hides his drone! I don't stick around because I don't want to get stuck on low ground after his lings get out and he promptly throws down the hatch.

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At this point I'm really expecting heavy aggression, so I throw down a 2nd Rax. In hindsight an overreaction, but in the moment I thought it was justified. I realized my mistake as soon as I saw a drone pop out of larve after 8 lings.

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Fortune was again on my side as his overlord scouted in the correct direction, but didn't have vision of my base and so he sent his lings the wrong direction. By the time his 8 lings got to my base, I already had a healthy enough number of marines to easily hold my ramp

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My medics arrive and I move out to pressure while I finally take my own natural.

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Alas, his sunkens are complete and I back off, content with the slight dent I put in his econ. I also spotted his spire timing, which was lucky since I never open with 2rax normally, so all my normal timings from 1rax expo couldn't be trusted.

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Knowing mutas wouldn't be out for a little while, I sent my mm group roving to check for stupidly greedy 3rds. I check his natural 3rd, the main across from me, but nothing to be found... because he took the 9 o'clock! I continued to look for his 3rd the whole game, and eventually checked every since expo except for that one. Never saw it until I checked the replay =(

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Despite not know the 2rax timings in the slightest, I still get off the money scan on his morphing mutas and get my turrets up with not a moment to spare.

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I had probably over made turrets and so he wasn't very aggressive with his harrass, only killing 1 or 2 scvs at the nat and picking off the scv on the starport. I reacted quickly and got my tech up in decent time, but he was one step ahead of me. Because his hidden 3rd was just a little bit earlier than normal he was about to finish lurkers and had already started his hive.

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At this point I'm still trying to figure out if he is doing a 2base all-in and so I scan the other 2 mains and 12 o'clock. It probably would have been better to scan his main to check his drone count / hive timing but I don't have the game sense to really be sure of what he is doing from drone counts. Something to work on!

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I was very confused, since a 2base lurk-muta timing would have hit already but it really seemed to me as if he hadn't taken his 3rd. Almost to confirm my paranoia, his lurkers finally do show up and he tries to bait my mm over them with his mutas.

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Although my vessel wasn't quite out yet, I had siege and a good size group of mm, so with a scan and a bit of a spread, I engage!

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Victory! Just 30sec later and my vessel pops and I'm feeling really good about my upcoming push.

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Up unto this point my macro had been great! After watching the rep, I confirmed that I didn't miss a depot the whole game (rather rare for me). My barracks had too much queued at times, but they were almost never idle. But still, my minerals shot up through the roof just as I started my push! I think this was because I had just completed my tech path, and I didn't have an outlet for the income that was going to that before.
The answer to all of that (I think), is that my additional rax were late (I only added them as I moved out and realized I had 1k!). They should have been added right after I start 3rd tank + vessel + irradiate.

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As I move out I scan his natural and see just a few lings popping out. To me this means his army is out on the map, so I have to be very careful about counter attacks and surrounds. Sure enough, I catch just a brief glimpse of his force on the minimap as I advance!

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I thought this was the start of a counter attack so I quickly turn my force around. But instead of catching him on my natural bridge, he goes for a pincer attack! Because I had turned my army around though, it meant that the two sides hit just slightly one after the other.

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The end result was that I lost a good number of mm, but kept my tanks and vessel! Right here at this moment, I direct your attention to the 1700 minerals I have sitting in bank. That's 2 control groups of marines I could have had here! I really feel like that would easily have dealt with what he had left right then and there:

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Instead, I had to wait for my reinforcements before I moved out again. By that time he had reinforced his own force with a large group of lings and it ended up being just too much for my meager force.

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Soon after that, consume was finished, he had taken his 4th at 8 o'clock, and my time on this world was coming to an end. I started an expo at 6 o'clock to try and make a comeback.

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I sent out scouts looking for the 3rd I knew he must have and all I found was a freshly made base. There were no drones on gas so I knew that couldn't be it.

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And the final thrust, 3 defilers spamming swarm over lurker-ling in my natural.

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For the umpteenth time so far this season, I played better starcraft than anything I ever did in previous seasons and was still crushed. Cursing myself and this game, I looked to my fellow player for redemption by asking a simple question; and his answer turned this loss from something shameful into an affirmation that I really am improving and that soon, someday, I might actually win a game just like this one.

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JMave

Singapore1806 Posts

December 11 2011 13:18 GMT

A- nice

The_Templar

your Country52798 Posts

December 11 2011 13:35 GMT

GJ going toe-to-toe with an A-!

shucklesors

Singapore1176 Posts

December 11 2011 13:38 GMT

First picture made me laugh immediately. Awesome battle report, wasn't expecting a loss tbh.

sc4k

United Kingdom5454 Posts

December 11 2011 13:43 GMT

Hahha, that very last picture turns the entire experience from frustrating to amazing.

Hesmyrr

Canada5776 Posts

December 11 2011 14:13 GMT

I love detailed commentary

And it wasn't even that WoT...

Keyboard Warrior

United States1178 Posts

December 11 2011 14:47 GMT

You were no match for him.

He got you where he want you every step of the way.

craaaaack

479 Posts

December 11 2011 15:09 GMT

Sorry to disappoint but he certainly wasn't A- last season or ever. I got curious from your screenshots and checked his ICCUP profile. He didn't play all that much this season but judging from the screenshots I'd say he's C at best. Nice write-up though.

Black[CAT]

Malaysia2589 Posts

December 11 2011 15:14 GMT

Sending scv's out on the map to check for hidden bases is always good

3FFA

United States3931 Posts

December 11 2011 15:18 GMT

#10

At first pic I expected proxy hatch

. Also, nice job facing that A- just uhh.... wheres that replay you forgot? o.O
edit:

On December 12 2011 00:09 craaaaack wrote:
Sorry to disappoint but he certainly wasn't A- last season or ever. I got curious from your screenshots and checked his ICCUP profile. He didn't play all that much this season but judging from the screenshots I'd say he's C at best. Nice write-up though.

Can you link us to his profile please?