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Ruski's Crawl to the Top of the Ladders Week 3.5
 

Currently Laddering

I apologise for the lateness of this blog entry, I have had stuff going on this week and didn't really have much to contribute because I have had a bit of a break from sc2. There are many reasons why I had the break and they are as follows:

- As you guys might know I am a nurse at a hospital, I deal with a lot of death and sickness everyday and I usually shrug it off. A week ago I went through a really traumatic experience at work, a very graphic death which I am just starting to see a counsellor about. My whole life at the moment is on hold because of this. I am trying to find ways to cope and sc2 at the moment is not my priority even though I love the game.

- A week and a half ago I finally got my Razer Blackwidow Ultimate and Razer Goliathus, I am still getting used to the keyboard and feel of my mouse and I am not very accurate. I have to retrain a lot of habits that would work on my old keyboard that won't work on my new one; I am practically feel like I am playing another persons computer. Because there is a different feeling my macro is very crappy and I miss a lot of hotkeys, I had been going against gold and silver players but I feel after each game I am getting worse and worse.

As I am writing this blog I am extremely frustrated, my games have truely suffered and I feel myself sinking back to the bottom of the barrel. I never get angry at my opponents (except in a zergs case of a 6pool) but I find myself getting so angry at myself because I know I am capable of so much more. After a while I usually just give up, but I made a promise to work on things with my game so I am going to keep at it.

Notable Matches this Week

Game 1: Ladder FFE Really Bad Macro Match up: v
Replay: http://www.sc2sea.com/replays.php?do=viewreplay&id=1104

In this first game I am playing the race I absolutely hate the most, Zerg. I started off with my plan being a basic FFE into some early stargate units which I saw earlier that week was pretty good early game zerg. I did my scout on 9 supply, I knew the map being a 4 player one I wanted to make sure a scout was done to see if any shenanigans would arrive. When I scouted I saw an early gas and knew he wasn't 6 pooling me, I knew I was safe and he was likely macroing up.


Gas= no 6 pooling, Great Start

I did a very rocky FFE, I put up a couple cannon instead of my usual one because I found it wasn't quite enough having just 1 up.


My Wall Off

From there everything went awry, my cybercore was really late and I supply blocked myself pretty bad on 44 when my two stargates were supposed to start making voidrays. I was also was stuck with only 1 gate until 11 minutes and by that time had a tonne of resources piled up not being used.


Late Cybercore Going Down

In the end it didn't end well, I didn't use my voids very well (being that I don't use them much) and was floating way too many resources and had no units to push back the roach hyda push that happened on my doorstep. My macro was sub par, I was too worried about what was going to happen and I had no idea it was coming. I also should have expanded but considering the amount of units I had I wouldn't have been able to do that safely.


Roach Hydra Push that Slaughters Me

After that defeat I checked the league my opponent was, turned out he was a silver league zerg who was in top 5 of his division last season, my only consolation in this game.

Game 2: Ladder 2 Gate - Robo - Expo w/ Terran Macro Fail Match up: v
Replay: http://www.sc2sea.com/replays.php?do=viewreplay&id=1105

I find at the moment my v to be my favourite match up, my usual build is a 2 Gate - Robo - Expo build that uses sentry forcefields to handle marine and marauder pushes that would usually melt me. Everything was pretty good early game save for a particularly pesky scv scout early on seeing me put down my 2nd gas and a pretty late observer (which is pretty important in this build being pretty defensive and all).


Robo goes down

First observer coming out nearly a whole minute of robo being built

My Buildings before my Expand

It is usually after my expand and after a few immortals (which would probably be my favoured unit) that everything usually goes downhill macro wise. Looking back I notice (didn't remember this game because it was done on the 26th of last month) that I didn't add enough gateways to compensate for the added money flow from 2 base. I also find myself pylon blocking myself a few times during the mid and late game, in fact I was blocked so bad that with taking my 3rd base I needed to drop 3 pylons before my nexus.


Nasty Pylon Block, 3rd Expo

In the end I massed up a ball of death of 17 zealots, 8 stalkers, 8 sentries, 3 immortals and 3 colossi with thermal lance with 1/1 upgrades and 3 more colossi in the works when I was dropped in my 3rd, cleaned it up and pushed. As I was macroing up a bit my army pushed my enemies natural expo and should have cleaned up rather well had I have microed my units well and kept on warping in units via a proxy pylon I should have put down.

I end up winning the game but losing my battle with macro which I ended up with over 5k minerals, I also was supposed to go for my 4th as I was pushing with my main starting to really thin out.


My Army at Time of the Drop

At gg, Note the 5K Minerals and lack of Units and New Expo

Looking back I know I still have so much practice to do regarding my macro, I also have to keep in mind my upgrades which I tend to neglect. If anyone that reads this blog would also note what times a normal 4th is supposed to go down I would really appreciate it, I will aim to get my expo times better by next blog.

Match 3: Ladder Random Terran 2 Gate - Robo - Expo Throw away Game Match up: v ()
Replays: http://www.sc2sea.com/replays.php?do=viewreplay&id=1106

In hindsight I wasn't very happy with this game, this game and the two before this were the games after just recovering from over 24 hours of no sleep and really struggled with these games.

I started off, seeing the player as a random race, with a partial wall off at my ramp with my first gate because 90% of random players I have gone against in ladders were cheesers. At my scout on 9 (being a 4 player map) I discovered my opponent being Terran; awesome no zerg 6 pool nonsense!


Yaay my opponent isn't a dirty

I tried to some extent to transition to my usual build with terran, having a slightly delayed expansion in the process and a few other hiccups in the process but still fairly safe. Eventually got my 3rd and massed a bit of an army and took my 4th without too much troubles to start.


My Late Natural Expo

Army Ball with 1/1 upgrades

My mistake in all this was to keep an eye on my opponent by scouting, my opponent ends up massing about 6 or 7 banshees and rips apart my 4th expo. At this time I try to deal with it but with no observer on the field and cloaked banshees shredding my expansion I thought I may be able to go kill him with my ball of death and force a base race. I sent my army blindly to my opponents base knowing that with my colossi with my army I may stand a chance.


Banshees that Cleaned up my 4th Base

The next thing I know my army is splitting apart, forgetting my colossi can traverse ledges and go straight to my opponents base while the rest of my army has to go through the front door and with no support with my colossi and the sight I could get on my opponents ledge which may have helped with attacking my opponents 3 sieged up tanks. I end up losing all my army via a combination of marines, marauders and medivacs with tank support on top of high ground.


Main Army Melting to M&M&M with Tank Support

Meanwhile my Main Army is being Slaughtered, my Colossi out of Position

I tried to come back after this, trying to maybe invest in some archons and high templars but I end up just being cleaned up and gg'ing out.


Last Efforts being Cleaned up

After this game it was decided I would have a break from SC2 for a few days, I was so frustrated at this time dropping from fighting high level , low players and winning (see last week) to being slaughtered by lowbies like me. I found myself being angry at myself at this time, I had worked so hard and was looking like a promotion coming around but that vision was slowly dying as my units were massacred by a terran which I was most comfortable to play against.

I ended up playing a lot of LoL after this, and not having touched SC2 until this morning. This next game is a match after a couple fail warm up games against computer AI.

Match 4: Ladder 4 Gate Attempt Match up: v
Replay: http://www.sc2sea.com/replays.php?do=viewreplay&id=1107

With this game I was just starting to shake off the rust of not playing for about a week, so I knew I had my work cut out for me. The match was favoured to my opponent so I knew he was at least in so I decided since I didn't have a macro intensive build for a mirror match that I would just 4 Gate and hope for the best. Unfortunately I was scouted and when I put one of my proxy pylons down it was destroyed. My opponent did some kind of 3 Gate - Robo build that pushed out a lot of units at the start instead of using chrono on his cybercore.


Opponent Destroying my Proxy Pylon

My opponent pushed my units back to my main, I have to admit I was in a bit of a panic and my macro went out the door. I was able to get a few sentries out to forcefield my ramp a few times to slow my enemy down so I could get enough units to push him back. I ended up having an upgrade advantage and push him out my natural, letting me expand really late at 18 minutes when my opponent casually expanded and teched up.


Force fielding....YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

Pushing my Opponent Out

Finally expanding at the 18 MINUTE MARK

I was so mindful of catching up that my opponent in the end got the same upgrades plus a charge upgrade for his zealots and massed a big army, crushing mine in the end.


My Opponent Coming to Crush my Army

I was fairly disappointed about the match in the end, I checked though before my next match what league he was in, lo and behold he was league which made me feel a bit better knowing it was a player.

Match 5: League Winging it against Protoss Match up: v
Replay: http://www.sc2sea.com/replays.php?do=viewreplay&id=1108

In this match I decided to wing it, trying to focus on my expanding. I opened up with a fast stalker like build, I push my opponent and get steam rolled. So I decided to just macro up and try to catch him in the mid to late game. I don't have much else to say about this match, it was a pretty fail game, I mass up a good amount of units not knowing he had an army of dt's in his main army.

I have to say I was a bit happier with my expanding but need to make more production buildings when I expand so much. I end up being killed by a mixture of dt's, stalkers and archons.


My Big Push at My Opponents Base, Not Knowing What was Lurking Around the Corner

Crap Load of DT's

By the Time this Shows Up at my Door There is Nothing I Can Do

Turns out this player was a league player, still bit of a fail though considering I wasnt going to implement an actual build order what do you expect.

Match 6: Laddering 2 Gate - Robo - Expo w/ BM Match up: v
Replay: http://www.sc2sea.com/replays.php?do=viewreplay&id=1109

Well after the disappointing game before I was praying it wasn't a zerg or protoss again, I was blessed because I got a matchup. Did my usual thing, only a bit better this match, after expanding I notice a bunker not too far away from my ramp, in the end I decided to ignore it and macro up. Did a little scouting with my first observer and saw not much in his base with a ghost academy which seeing that I made sure to have another observer with my army in case of any shenanigans.

After dealing with a couple reapers trying to kill off my expo I massed a good enough army to clean up a couple really small pushes and pushed the bunker, I ended up finding a proxy barracks with a small army nearby. I proceeded to push up to my opponent's base to finish him off, he tried to lift off but I got to nab his expo CC and after some scouting found a proxy factory and starport.


See What Appears to be a Bunker near my Ramp

Realising there is a Proxy Rax Behind Bunker

Dealing with Reaper Harassment

As Day9 Would Say, How to Deal With Proxy Nonsense Just Go F*&^ing Kill Him

Scouting More Proxy Shenanigans, Cheeky Fella

Also a note to people, I would think myself as a nice and well mannered person but I would have to say I love BM so much. I have never BMed anyone and never will but to people who BM me and expect rage you waste your time. I don't rage when I am BM, I LOVE it and make me laugh I am like a pig in s&^% (no offense PiG ) with BM thrown at me. In fact you will most likely get a 'U Mad?' on my bad days.


Someone's Jimmies has been Rustled

Looking back on this game though I still fail pretty bad with my micro game, it took me way too long to get my 3rd up and was floating a lot of minerals (not as much as before but still quite a bit). I tried to alleviate that stockpile by making more Gates but by that time the game was over.

After this match I decided to end the day on a high note, ended up after not playing for a week to drop to 11th place in my division which to tell you the truth I am not to fussed about, I plan on getting to the top anyways .

In Conclusion
After a disaster of a week I would say I am getting used to some changes and slowly getting there, might take a while to get used to my keyboard but I have done it once I can do it again.

My main focus in this week I decided to be expansions, production and spending my money effectively, and as always the basic principle of pylons and probes too. As I requested earlier if someone would give me the usual time a 4th would go up I would appreciate it, an approximate time would be lovely. I want to thank you for reading this blog and I hope that you will read my past ones and follow me on my road up the ladders!

Thank you SC2SEA.
Currently Rank 10 from Rank 6

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