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United States261 Posts
Yesterday I played in the DC Lan for the Diamond and Below tournament. I had a lot of fun and I'll do a quick overview of my practice and training.
Practice
So my winter break started a few days before Christmas and unfortunately my computer was dead. I attempted to play on my laptop but it starts to lag after a few games which just made me very frustrated. I replaced my motherboard and after 3 hours of figuring out why it wouldn't post (lol bent pins) it was working!
I worked and had a class during my month long break and I promised to myself that I would play 5 or more games a day. At the beginning, I was pretty bad since I haven't played in over two months and it got frustrating but I just kept at it. Eventually, I managed to start beating some golds and got into top 8! I was hoping I could move up to gold before the tournament but that didn't happen.
Tournament
It started snowing the night before the tournament and it was a little worrisome about the road conditions but everything turned out pretty okay. My boyfriend and I prepared for our hour long drive by scrapping ice off his car and we were on the road.
Once we got to the shopping center where the LAN center was located we couldn't figure out where it was. We noticed it was on the second floor but we just didn't know where we were suppose to enter. Eventually, we got inside and were greeted with a crap ton of comic books. They had shelves of comic books and it was pretty neat.
One of the owners helped me to log in to a computer and I watched a few IEM games before setting up. I played a ladder game which I won and adjusted my mouse settings.
We waited around a bit for which tournament was going to start first, unfortunately for me, it was the open tournament which I was not participating in. I gave up my computer and we went to go get some Wendy's while we wait.
After we came back, they were still playing the other tournament so my boyfriend snagged an open computer that couldn't load SC2 and played some LoL with some friends. I stood around and watched him and other players.
Eventually, as the other tournament group play started to dwindle the diamond and under tournament was slowly getting started. Torrenhire helped me out in securing a computer and I started setting my self up.
My Spectacular 3 Game Run
First game was against HoneyBadger a diamond zerg. I tried to focus on him being a zerg more than his rank. As we were getting the game set up, he didn't have sound for some reason but he decided to play without it.
Our first map was Xel'naga Caverns, I scouted that he built his pool before mine and I tried to go speedling into banelings. However, he built waaaay more zerglings and attacked before I could get out any more. I managed to hold off the first attack but zerglings kept streaming in and I gg.
Second map was Shakuras Plateau. I went 14 pool 13 gas while HoneyBadger I believe mirrored the same thing. My zerglings upgraded to speedlings and I scouted his base. I managed to slip a zergling in and saw a roach warren. I was going to go baneling but started building a roach warren. I thought I would be safe so I expanded. However, HoneyBadger pushed out and with a lot of roaches. I cancelled my expansion and built another spine crawler. I managed to hold off his assault and he retreated. I noticed he expanded probably behind his attack and I finally started my other expansion.
I thought he was going to go mutalisk so I prepared some anti-air however he went infestors. At this point, he was up to 3 base and I attempted to deny it but I did not have enough units. He made his final push and I gg'd.
So, I was knocked to lower bracket but I thought that's okay because I might be matched up against an opponent that is somewhat of a more equal skill level.
My next opponent was Doomville who was a gold zerg. Gold level is okay but another zerg :<
Our map was Xel'naga Caverns once again and I do the same opening as the last map. Once again, I started falling apart to zerg aggression. I tried to expand but I didn't have enough to defend it. After suffering a lot of losses I gg'd.
Afterwards, Doomville and I chatted about zvz and I wished him good luck in the rest of the tournament.
Lessons Learned
Probably should have done a lot more research on ZvZ match up and just watched a lot more pro replays.
I wished I stayed a bit longer for the korean bbq and met people.
Overall, I had a great time and I didn't really mind the wait. I want to attend another one and hopefully I'll be in a better shape and more knowledgeable.
Thanks for hosting and reading ! :D
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nice blog Angela! was good seeing you even though we didn't really get a chance to chat. Ended up spending a majority of the time yesterday losing to aviloplaying in the open tournament as well as trying to help torenhire run stuff as smooth as we could so I was kind of all over the place...
We showed up in the morning and were notified we had 12 less pc's than we thought we would have because they had been reinstalled or were under repair or something, made for some kinda crazy juggling that we didn't think we'd have to do.
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United States261 Posts
On January 23 2012 03:34 LuckyFool wrote: nice blog Angela! was good seeing you even though we didn't really get a chance to chat. Ended up spending a majority of the time yesterday losing to aviloplaying in the open tournament as well as trying to help torenhire run stuff as smooth as we could so I was kind of all over the place...
We showed up in the morning and were notified we had 12 less pc's than we thought we would have because they had been reinstalled or were under repair or something, made for some kinda crazy juggling that we didn't think we'd have to do.
No big deal. Saw you running around and you looked quite busy.
After working in IT for a school, I understand that shit happens and they will only have a few computers ready to replace.
I liked this place way better than cybergrounds. Lots of room to sit and not hard to get to.
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thanks for coming i had a blast. I hope that every one who was considering coming and didn't, reads this post and decides that next time they are gunna come ^_^ As usual another successful lan however this particular one was one of the best we have had recently
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Nice post, glad you could make it to the LAN!
Sorry there was a wait, like Rob said, we had a bunch less PCs than we thought and I was like @_@
Hope to see you next time, and you need to harass that slacker boyfriend of yours into playing! He totally owned face the first couple LANs he played in!
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Very nice!! I should have studied some zvz myself!! >_< We'll make sure we have more working starcraft 2 computers next time!! Thank you again for coming down and we hope to see you again!! :D
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United States261 Posts
Nice post, glad you could make it to the LAN!
Sorry there was a wait, like Rob said, we had a bunch less PCs than we thought and I was like @_@
Hope to see you next time, and you need to harass that slacker boyfriend of yours into playing! He totally owned face the first couple LANs he played in!
I'll try to convince him. But the pull of LoL is very strong.
Very nice!! I should have studied some zvz myself!! >_< We'll make sure we have more working starcraft 2 computers next time!! Thank you again for coming down and we hope to see you again!! :D
That would be awesome to have more working computers :D I hope we get even more people!
I'll make sure to come again.
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good blog post i 5 stared
Probably should have done a lot more research on ZvZ match up good luck getting another zerg to practice with you zvz Y_Y zvz is a hard match up
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Great post and sorry to hear about your losing experience. I have been there myself. The first 2 LANs I went to I didn't win a single game, but I still kept practicing and tried to get better which i hope you continue yourself! Best of luck! if you ever need to practice your TvZ ask me on SC2, my ID is ZeeLXG.908
I too played in the diamond and below tournament, and hopefully it makes you feel better to know that I faced Doomville in the loser's bracket and avenged your "death" and defeated him after a close back and forth game.
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United States261 Posts
good luck getting another zerg to practice with you zvz Y_Y zvz is a hard match up
I've had people on ladder just leave games when it was zvz. ;_;
Great post and sorry to hear about your losing experience. I have been there myself. The first 2 LANs I went to I didn't win a single game, but I still kept practicing and tried to get better which i hope you continue yourself! Best of luck! if you ever need to practice your TvZ ask me on SC2, my ID is ZeeLXG.908
I too played in the diamond and below tournament, and hopefully it makes you feel better to know that I faced Doomville in the loser's bracket and avenged your "death" and defeated him after a close back and forth game.
Alright, I will try to remember to do so. TvZ is probably my favorite match up tbh.
And thanks for the revenge kill lol.
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Awesome blog post! I was casting the event this time and sadly I wasn't able to walk around and meet people like the previous LANs hopefully more people will come visit the "casting couch" ^_^ I'm glad you had a good experience, these LANs are a lot of fun and you can meet a lot of really cool people!
If you ever wanted to get some more tournament/practice my clan LXG host 2 tournaments a week, Tuesday's are for Gold and Below players and Thursday is for Diamond and Platinum. You can find out more info here http://teamlxg.forumotion.com/
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United States261 Posts
On January 24 2012 05:27 TheRealNanMan wrote:Awesome blog post! I was casting the event this time and sadly I wasn't able to walk around and meet people like the previous LANs hopefully more people will come visit the "casting couch" ^_^ I'm glad you had a good experience, these LANs are a lot of fun and you can meet a lot of really cool people! If you ever wanted to get some more tournament/practice my clan LXG host 2 tournaments a week, Tuesday's are for Gold and Below players and Thursday is for Diamond and Platinum. You can find out more info here http://teamlxg.forumotion.com/
Alright I will definently try to participate in those.
I haven't gotten a chance to listen to your casts but I've heard you are good :D
I hope you cast the next LAN.
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