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Hey 
This is my first post and blog post ^^
I don't normally write blogs but I don't think that this should go anywhere else.
So - Being a bronze player I watch a lot of VODs of tournaments and Day9 dailies.
While watching I take note of things - timings and just general good play ect.
I finally decided after playing all the races in Season 2 to pick Terran for Season 3.
This is working out great - going from rank 83 to rank 1 in a day!
Although while doing a lot of laddering, just doing 3rax Stim, I noticed something. While this is helping me learn a lot; Keeping money low, constant worker production, expanding and getting upgrades.
I feel like a lot of people expect heavy MM pressure and prepare for it, thus making most of the games;
"I killed his defense and he killed my force! but I've macro'd so I can just plow on in for a win!!."
But hey, I got to rank 1 - Considering how getting above rank 25 (last seasons finishing position) was my goal.
So that was last weekend. It was by all means great.
This weekend though - I've played against a lot more silver and gold players - beating them in a
less convincing manner and losing a lot more.
I've noticed during those games that the players take quicker expansions and are less aggressive - as in they will actually plan their attack - or it seems that way.
I guess my question is - How can I expand my play.
Instead of doing a 3rax push nearly every game, what other builds could I try/work on?
I've been doing 1rax 1fact 1port and I'm enjoying the build and general safety I feel with tanks and banshees.
Anyway - Thanks for reading this wall of text
- Edeen.
PS: I'll edit in how the rest of this weekend goes on Monday night.
Edit: replays;
A game where I think I macro'd 'ok' - TvT on Backwater Gulch
A ZvT where he tried to roach rush, not sure how helpful it is - ZvT Backwater Gulch
Season 4;
So I'm now in Silver and it's going good, just playing a lot of games against Zerg and trying out FE and mech builds. Thanks for everything ^^
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Maybe it is time for you to start doing matchup specific builds. Take your worst mu and steal some build from liquipedia or a pro replay and keep your 3rax build for the other two until you know the new one by heart.
Since you are now playing vs gold and silver players you wont stay in bronze for much longer.
Also your rank = nothing. You should look at points. You can be rank1 Masters with 1win if the league is brand new.
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Ok thanks! :D
my worst match up by far is TvZ.
I have 1248 points atm.
I'm currently talking to a friend on skype who is 'maining' Zerg. So i'll work on it now.
Thanks again! :D
- Edeen.
Edit: Resulted in playing a lot veruses Insane Zerg AI as he is to busy playing some SNES games xD
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You can expand your play by expanding 
No need for major changes, just try cutting a rax. 2rax into expand, then tech up to maybe reactor starport and keep adding rax. MMM is pretty solid all around. You might end up having to play a little more defensively, but it will improve your macro and help you learn to hold off pressure and cheese. Good luck!
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Thanks for all the suggestions and I'll try it all over the next week or so and do a bigger edit
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What i did was, check your favorite player (for me it was MMA) and specific builds you've seen VODs of that you liked.
Study these by watching some replays/VODS. Write down some timings, try them out a little bit on a testmap (not to long, because its better live, but to get general idea) and play them out.
I did this to get 1 build order for each matchup, and even though i'm terrible got into platinum with it (and i play to little, so no chance to get higher yet).
atm what i got is (and i have these buildorders in notepad open in my 2nd screen when i play):
TvZ:
- MMA dropstyle play
- reactor hellion into expand
TvP
-1rax expand
-3rax pressure
TvT
- clueless
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Ok, that is a great idea! :D Really liking Alive's play from IPL today and ofc Boxer's play O_O
But they both require godly APM, but i'll give it ago.
Thanks again!!
- Edeen.
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United States236 Posts
After having looked at your replay, I found a few errors that are common in lower league play: getting supply blocked, not producing from your structures/command center, constructing buildings and then not really using them, etc. Instead of first trying to expand your play I would first work on these main issues as they are what really is holding you back.
One of the biggest problems I see in lower league play, in addition to the problems listed above, is poor mechanics and bad macro. Mechanics are some of the most important skills your can have in this game and just by improving those I can guarantee that your macro will become better. If you don't really know what mechanics are, then you should take a look at Day[9] daily #252 (at least I think it's 252).
Also as posted above pick one build for every matchup and just grind it out again and again. This is exactly how the Koreans get good, they grind out the same exact build until they are in diamond or higher. Maybe since your in bronze focus on one base play until you can manage everything without getting supply blocked and such and then move on into fast expansion builds once you get good enough.
This is how I got out of bronze and now I am a top diamond zerg and terran player who regularly plays and beats mid masters level players.
Good luck!
P.S I can't stress enough how important it s to get good mechanics. There are grandmasters level players who have no creativity at all and just copy other pro players builds but are able to be top players just with sick mechanics.
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On October 09 2011 03:56 Eatme wrote:
Maybe it is time for you to start doing matchup specific builds. Take your worst mu and steal some build from liquipedia or a pro replay and keep your 3rax build for the other two until you know the new one by heart.
Since you are now playing vs gold and silver players you wont stay in bronze for much longer.
Also your rank = nothing. You should look at points. You can be rank1 Masters with 1win if the league is brand new.
Your points also don't mean anything. The only thing that has slight meaning is your win/loss ratio. Another theing with even greater significance is to be in Grandmasters.
For the guy that is matched with gold and silver and beating them, even if losing more than 50% of the games against them, he would be eventually put in gold/silver. As another advice as a fellow terran, don't move out with your 3 rax composition unless you scout a very fast expansion. Even then chances are you might be plowed by ling/zealot/sentry/hellion or even scv/probe/drone pull + army. I don't tell you not to be agressive, you should be plenty aggressive, especially vs zerg, but I am telling you to do informed aggression, knowing what you should expect and also teching/macroing behind your aggression.
But to be honest, for a bronze/silver/gold/diamond/masters player, it is actually recommended to work on mechanics and not on aggression. It is easier to defend and macro than to attack and macro at the same time. So maybe your aggressive style is one of the reasons holding you down. Next time you are playing don't be shy to expand aggressively and play a more defensive style. Expanding will automatically make you improve your macro, which is what is the difference between the leagues. Micro is also very important but somehow i feel it is easier to improve by playing some micro map or smth like that.
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wow, thanks a lot CoolSea!
Im just looking through the Terran builds on Liquipedia - As your suggesting 1 base play. I guess I'll stick with 3rax stim for... TvP? it seems to work better in TvP for me.
Thanks for all your time and great advice! :D
Edit: Wow, so much information. I'll try to do informed aggression. I sort of just said to myself in that ZvT reply (in OP) He did a rush.. he can't have much? and lucky he didn't. I'm sure that is the wrong way to think as if he had early units in 'mass' to rush - surely he can have more??
So from now (21:30) until about midnight im going to practicing all match ups against a work mate - I'll post the replies tomorrow.
Again, Thanks so much!! xD
- Edeen.
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It's great that being a part of the starcraft community means to have access to a lot of stuff about starcraft and particularly on how to get better at starcraft.
But if you're bronze please don't focus to hard on all that stuff. With all due respect being in bronze means that you are bad in so many ways. If you would just start with 10 supply depot / 12 barracks each game and go from there you will learn so many things on your own while getting mechanically more acquainted with the game.
Ofcourse you will make mistakes but you will learn more about the game than starting with a build like 3 rax stim and executing it over and over again until you get to a division where you don't belong because your build brought you there.
If you're in bronze you shouldn't be thinking about timings you should be thinking "Ooh i wanna make something that can fly".
That in my opinion a lot more fun and when you get completely thrashed you'll learn the hard way why you don't do x vs y.
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I know im terrible.
I'll try it - opening 10 depot 12 rax and just feel it out.
Thanks for your reply
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"Getting to a division you don't belong." Is utter horse shit.
Half of the difficulty advancing leagues is learning what your scouting information should queue as a response. Not dying to cloaked units, not dying to a timing push you should scout, not allowing a protoss player to place a pylon in your base, knowing when to NOT attack.
If you like 3rax vs toss, do it all day long if you want. You may want to feel out 2rax reactor after first marine though. As long as you're macroing well it'll spend nearly all of your money. Once you push out to pressure you'll be able to place a cc in your main and either defend the ramp or move it to your natural and continue your game plan.
Don't stress the details, try to learn what scouting information gives you. Try to multitask better. Try to position your army well before a battle occurs to give yourself a favorable engagement. Try to not be caught unaware. Try to not lose to cheese (good luck sir)!
Anyway this has grown quite long winded.
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On October 09 2011 05:44 Edeen wrote:I know im terrible. I'll try it - opening 10 depot 12 rax and just feel it out. Thanks for your reply
Well everyone without former RTS experience (like me too) was terrible at one point. I personally learned a lot by just playing a lot of games with a friend where we both always tried to do wacky stuff. Almost every game was pure craziness.
You'll think about your builds yourself and doing so you'll learn to understand why you would make a refinery before a barracks, why you would skip bunkers and be less safe etc, etc.
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On October 09 2011 06:01 JonnyLaw wrote:
"Getting to a division you don't belong." Is utter horse shit.
Maybe he should 3 rax all in each game. I heard it's a pretty cheese-proof build.
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On October 09 2011 03:59 Edeen wrote:
Ok thanks! :D
my worst match up by far is TvZ.
I have 1248 points atm.
I'm currently talking to a friend on skype who is 'maining' Zerg. So i'll work on it now.
Thanks again! :D
- Edeen.
Edit: Resulted in playing a lot veruses Insane Zerg AI as he is to busy playing some SNES games xD
Holy cow poop. how did you get 1248 points??? :O
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As a terran, I found watching Trump's stream to be very helpful for learning builds beyond 3-rax. He's a high masters level player and commentates while playing. www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/Trump
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On October 09 2011 08:48 xsquared wrote:Show nested quote +On October 09 2011 03:59 Edeen wrote:
Ok thanks! :D
my worst match up by far is TvZ.
I have 1248 points atm.
I'm currently talking to a friend on skype who is 'maining' Zerg. So i'll work on it now.
Thanks again! :D
- Edeen.
Edit: Resulted in playing a lot veruses Insane Zerg AI as he is to busy playing some SNES games xD Holy cow poop. how did you get 1248 points??? :O
Just did 3rax a lot - I didn't play for a month so I was basically bottom of Bronze... so a lot of wins gave me the points. The fact that I had 600 bonus pool helped ^_^
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On October 09 2011 08:58 funtimeplayer wrote:As a terran, I found watching Trump's stream to be very helpful for learning builds beyond 3-rax. He's a high masters level player and commentates while playing. www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/Trump
Thanks! I'll check it out :D
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EPT
