EPTIn the past 3 days since the new iccup season started I've played 85 ladder games and 4 non ladder games. In the 4 non ladder games I went 2-2 (against 2 different C opponents). In the ladder games I went 34-51. For a grand total of 36-53. All at the D and D+ ranks. Quite a poor record!
I'm really glad the iccup season restarted over a 3 day weekend. I happened to have no plans so I just said screw life for 3 days and played sc. Which is rare for me. I usually tend to avoid playing sc on the weekends, usually I'm tied up with other things or out of the house for one reason or another. This weekend I ditched everything and stayed holed up mass iccup'ing. I ended up averaging 28 games a day.
I played over 10 games against A- or higher ranked opponents which was a joy. Sure I lost all the games and was probably horribly outmatched but many of the games I was legitly alive 15 minutes into the game which tells me early build order execution isn't always all that horrible. Bunch of games I lost to cheese which reminds me one of the big things I dislike about iccup, people playing solely for points and a record. It's far too easy to let stats or a letter grade dictate how you play the game. People play for cheap wins not to improve. 2 days ago I played the then #40th ranked player in the world TvZ on colo2. He 4pooled into sunk rush. I stopped it easily but I thought, this is all this guy is probably doing. He's now 52-17 C-, bashing noobs with his 4pool sunk rush on the same map every game most likely... This isn't what sc should be about... sc should be about improving as a player and having fun while doing so. Many koreans use iccup solely for testing cheese builds which is amusing but can be frustrating!
I forced myself to play on heartbreakridge. A map I have absolutly detested since it was released. There are many places to proxy and cheese, a ledge above your choke and no ramp. Multiple paths to the enemy base, a near impossible 4th base to take TvP, not easy mech TvZ, a tiny choke that can get cluster blocked to easily by a proxy pylon, or a landed rax... All of these factors plus HBR is a courage map in Korea currently (Right???) so korean progaming hopefuls of tomorrow must be practicing that map hard these days. I went 5-25 on HBR overall. A ridiculously sad record. Of course I did myself no favors by constantly seeking out koreans with good records in the channel...... I hated desti when it came out but I've grown to like it, I hated HBR and I still hate HBR. It is easily my least favorite one on one map now.
Perhaps the most educational experience of this mass iccup session was a 5 game set played against wooricard an A+ zerg from last season. In the fifth game I actually almost had a slight advantage but sadly the bridges on destination prove to be VERY difficult moving across when there are half dozen lurkers and mass hydras camped out there. That rep along with game 1 rep were posted up in the iccup who's who thread, he told me he was a progamer and I believe him. He was nice enough to give me advice in a channel after the fifth game. He told me how to react and properly deal with "many lings -> 2hatch mutal" Told me how important it is to always be checking for zergling speedupgrade, what it means when a zerg makes gas before spawning pool, but how this is very risky for Z because Z can't stop 8rax if he does this. He taught me how you should always make ur 3rd rax before adding turrets when you know its 2hatch mutal. How you should always keep troops positioned and be ready for ling run in to try and pick off turrets right before mutal timing. And how there will only be 6 initial mutal + 1 + 2 with 2hatch so if your prepared correctly and at the right time you can handle it and will be strong going into 11th minute of game which is usually most important minute TvZ. Something to do with the zergs 3rd being vulnerable at this timing and depending on what zerg does and how fast his hive tech is you have timing window here...
he taught me ALOT more, must have spent a good 20 minutes chatting in channel afterwords, (through spotty english of course...) he told me I was not a bad player either which was nice... lol. The really high level koreans that I've gamed/talked to are almost all really well mannered and really cool people. It's too bad more people don't take after them manner wise...
I went 9-4 TvT which is pretty good. Couple wins TvT vs B last season too.
TvZ remains my worst matchup statistical wise. 7-19.
TvP is what I consider my best matchup timing and game sense wise. I still lose to random DT drop bullshit but in standard TvP I am overall pretty strong. I have TvP timing and understanding down pretty well which gets me by up decently enough.
Overall a really fun weekend of iccup, some really amazing games that I won't soon forgot. Many of my best games were ones I lost in the end, it's pretty crazy when you play a 25 minute game and know you can't really play any better and still get crushed... I will always have a profound respect for how hard koreans drive themselves in this insanely difficult game. And for how well they have picked it apart and analyzed it so deeply.
It blows the mind honestly when you step back and think just how sick amazing the game of Starcraft Broodwar is...
game on.
-LF
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