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Learning from the Masters (1)
 

Hey! So I've started laddering actively again, and am streaming it every time I do at http://www.twitch.tv/crazerk ! I will post here on the chatbox when I do (You should be able to see my stream under 'SEA livestreams' anyway). I usually stream when there's noone else is streaming anw, to avoid competition haha. So why not tune in! Can come and chat with me I love it

ANYWAY, streaming ad aside, I've decided to do this lessons learnt thing to help myself (and others improve). The original concept was to play in Master league acct, but I was losing every single game as my skill level is pretty crap so it felt kinda pointless - hey, we do need to win once in a while to have the motivation to play! So I decided to just play in Diamond, where it'll be more even and I can still learn!

So I will be blogging about the games... Specifically, my losses!

We all know a step towards improvement is to know why you lose each game, and so I thought this would help myself as well as provide some sort of reading material for the community

Each game I post will be of me either losing, or very barely winning because of some needless mistake, etc., followed by the lessons learnt. If you have no time to read the recap, just skip on to the 'lessons learnt' part, I'm sure many players can benefit from this as it will reinforce what NOT to do!

Ok enjoy!


Game 1
vs Arrogant (High Diamond) on Shakuras Plateau


1) I opened with my standard 14/14 speedling opening, (more or less the safest and most robust opening for ZvZs) while he went 14/14 gas/pool too BUT went for a roach warren!

Scouting ling barely escapes with his life

2) When I scouted the RW, I put down my own RW, after I had expanded at 21 (yes I was doing the typical speedling expand build)

3) When I saw that at 6 minutes + he still had not expanded neither had I caught sight of anything (besides his 3 roaches blocking his ramp), I suspected some sort of all-in rush , and hence threw down 2 spines, while I droned hard and teched to lair and started my +1 attack

4) Look at the minimap now


I'm the red player - excellent Overlord spread, yes? I see the entire path to my base.
BUT. Do you see the little blue dot at the bottom left of my base? Wonder what that is for...

5) It was 8 minutes+, and still no rush had came. I was now expecting some sort of Muta rush, so I put down 2 spores and got another queen, as well as my own Spire.
Little was I to expect...

6)

WTF NYDUS NETWORK RUSH

Seriously who does that? WHO DOES THAT. Well I've never seen it my whole diamond path, only probably in plat-ish at most? zzz.

And yes, that OL at the bottom left of my base was for vision to place the Nydus, and when it hit it was all but over - I had like, 3 roaches vs his 20 roaches + lings etc.


Lessons Learnt:
I'm not quite sure what I could have done better though. It seems perfectly legitimate to expect a Muta rush when he stays on one base, and I won't be able to scout until I hit Lair and get an Overseer.
Then again, perhaps 1 base muta in ZvZ is so weak that it's not feasible? Probably only manage 3-4 mutas with 1 base gas.

1) Expect a Nydus Network when opponent stays on 1 base for too long. Make sure to check entire perimeter to ensure it's OL free, perhaps have some lings patrolling around the perimeter of base, while turtling up in case it's some all-in rush.

Grab the replay pack here

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Game 2
vs YiDa (high Diamond) on Tal'Darim Altar

Cross spawn on this map, he goes FFE while I speedling expand.

1) I played it like a typical macro Zerg would do against FFE - early 3rd base, Drone like crazy till 8 minutes and then react according to scouting information
I need to learn some of those cool builds like Hydra drop and stuff heh.

2) Anyway, made a mistake of sending my OL over too slow - against a FFE you can more or less get a free OL scout into his main->expo because they typically won't have AA up that early, at most a sentry which takes ages to kill your OL.
So I had no idea what he had in his base, which wouldn't have mattered...

3) By 9 minutes still no sign of a push out or move out, so I was suspicious and put down a Hydralisk Den quickly, with precautionary spores at each base.

And somehow being the genius I am, when my Hydra den popped I made a round of 10..... Roaches. WTF was I doing??
Well I was getting Burrow + Roach speed + +1 so I was probably expecting some sort of Gateway timing push.. which I should NOT have (will explain later)

4) At 11 minutes he hit me - with 6 VRs. I had no Hydras out. It was GG.

Note where his Stargates are -_- Proxied at the top left.


Lessons learnt:
1) I had my ling at his entrance the whole time, and didn't see any Chronoboost on CC or Forge.

This should already signal some sort of Stargate play but I didn't react accordingly.

2) Always remember to send that OL floating in asap to scout for any fancy shenanigans.
If I had done this I would have seen nothing and then realize something is wrong and hopefully my game sense will make me get Hydras asap.

3) Any Gateway attack should hit by about 10 minutes - you should be seeing Warp-ins (assuming he doesn't hide it) before this, and when I didn't... I should have known Stargate play was coming.
I was too rigid and set on my burowed+1 roach which hard counters a Gateway army, so that prevented me from reacting properly (I even got the damn Hydra den already if those 10 Roaches had been Hydras I would have been more than ready to rape those VRs)

4) I hate FFE.


Grab the replay here!

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Game 3
vs Adam on Tal'Darim Altar

We were cross spawn, and as everyone knows, Protoss ALWAYS FFEs on this map.

So I made a friendly request,which he accepted.


He lied.

1) He pylon blocked my natural, which was annoying as I was going for an earlier hatch than my usual speedling hatch (I tried 15 pool 15 hatch).

2) I remembered my mistake of not scouting his front from the previous game, so:



Now I'm not quite sure why, but the excessive cannons seemed fishy to me. A typical wall in has just 2 cannons, but he had 3 (actually 4, but I didn't see it). Also, the forward placement of the cannon just struck me as odd.

3) Somehow, this led me to think that he was going for some Stargate build, so I decided to quickly get hydras.
I'm not sure if this is a bad read... But I've just learnt that when in doubt, get Hydras. I think I've been losing too much to Stargate builds so I'm hyper-sensitive.
Hydras do pretty well against some mass (blink) stalker build anw, and I very rarely see 6gate timing anymore (due to the easy burrow-roach counter)

4) True enough, he was going double stargate, and he only moved out when he had 4 phoenix - 2 VR - a tad too late it seems? As by the time he hit, out popped 7 hydras, and with a clutch transfuse I saved one Queen too.

5) I proceeded to overproduce Hydras, and when I saw the big army of Hydras I had, I decided to make a push, while taking a 4th.

6) Which turned out to be a bad idea, because he had an army of +1 chargelots + archons waiting for me


He tore me apart easily.

7) I had droned up behind this, so I was slightly ahead in harvestors. I had also made the progression to roach/hydra, while teching to hive. He decided to take this chance to make a push with Zealot/Archon/Phoenix:



I barely survive this push, and the main reason is because instead of using Phoenix to lift up roaches/hydras, he used them to go for my OLs! Thus I had enough firepower to clear his ground army.

I also noticed something in the replay - he stopped making Probes at about 60 probes - and was floating waaay too many minerals (2-3k). Needed more gateways I suppose.

8) I was making a conscious effort to stay on top of my expansions this game, as that was a problem that has plagued me the past few days - getting out macroed. (A previous problem was Creep spread, so I spent whole of Sunday emphasizing on Creep spread, and now it's decent )

9) I hit Hive tech, and made ling/roach/hydra/Ultralisks. We had an engagement...


Ultras are good.

10) He had too many Zealots - From my past losses I always lose to some mass Stalker army - he probably needed that. Regardless, I did the intuitive thing to take out his 4th with my remaining army, and continued making ultras and going 3/3. He GGed out once his 4th went down.


Lessons learnt:
1) Dont overproduce Hydras.
I was VERY far behind in Drones in the early-mid game due to me panic-spamming Hydras and only overtook him because he more or less stopped making Probes. Probably about 10-12 is enough? Not 20.
(This was a tip from SatuSPR on my stream chat Thanks !)

2) Keep up in expansions - they win games.
My goal on the night of playing (these 3 games in this post are played on different nights) this game was to keep up on expansions - and they REALLY helped. With 4 base gas I could keep up with the t3 production and keep up with macro (though it's more of him falling behind)

3) Deny Terran and Protoss' 3rd expansions (on maps like Tal'darim where it's harder, deny the 4th then!)
After coming back to the game (After my hiatus), I realized I became very passive and wasn't very good at staying on top of T or P's expansions. I added this to my mental checklist - almost managed to force a cancel in this game with a runby of lings but he warped in +2 lots which cleared up lings easily.

But as you can see, denying his 4th already gave me the mental victory over him - well, granted, he was low on resources and army too, but we all know how strong a Protoss army is, he MAY have had been able to secure his 4th with a reproduced army.. but he gave up after his 4th fell

4) Hive tech is good.
I've been going hive tech alot quicker than before, as I realized it's very hard to win the mid game t2 ag Toss/Terran nowadays, especially Toss. I've adopted the T2 goal of surviving till I hit T3, and practise all the good habits of scouting/denyingexpansions/expanding/spreadcreep etc. That should give me better games overall!


Grab the replay here!
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That's all folks! Thanks for reading, the next post may or may not be next week, depending if I have time. I'm also currently working on another project for the site, so may be busy.

Once again, come support me on my stream when I do stream, I really appreciate it ! Thanks bye!