Howdy howdy!
It has been quite the while since I wrote part 5 of this journey. Why is this? It's because I have recently started a company with my friend and despite being new, we have quite a few jobs already! For those interested, it is a software engineering company that sets up and creates tools specifically for small businesses.
ANYWAY! On top of that, I am at heart a professional Quake player, and my last ever CTF tournament final was coming up (I'm transferring to SC2, yay!) so I had to practice a lot for that ^_^
Now, it was quite a pleasant surprise for me when Season 3 came about. After my placement match, I was placed into Platinum. This was quite a shock to me as I was losing quite a few games leading up to Season 3. It turned out my losses were all to Platinum players though, so here I am :] I'm still Platinum on NA though! Gah!
Recently I have been rather dominating in ZvP. This comes as no surprise to me since I used to practice with Solis quite a lot (who now does not have a working computer to play SC2 on SADFACE!). ZvZ is the usual 50% win rate as it can be quite the interesting match up. ANYTHING can happen in ZvZ >.<! ZvT however, is a different story for me. I have been having EXCESSIVE trouble handling hellions and banshees (and hellions into banshees T_T).
This caused me to get that oh-so-annoying pre-game anxiety. I started believing that my rank was important and all that yadder yadder. I was given some feedback from peers though whom suggested that I just play to get rid of my bonus pool. This seemed like a good idea to me, and it worked rather well!
I'm fortunate enough to have met EveSigns at B.E.S.T., and he took me through a bit of coaching. He commented on my play and told me exactly what I should be doing at all times. Eventually he told me to play on my own and commentate myself. Doing this, I was eventually able to beat a Diamond Terran as I was consciously aware of what I should be doing and how to appropriately respond.
For those of you struggling, the main tips given were:
1. OVERLORD PLACEMENT. This seems like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised how many Zergs at my level start forgetting Overlord placement after the 10 minute mark. At all times you should have overlords surrounding the enemy bases and your own bases. Being given multiple chances to spot drops and Banshees is soooo essential to surviving in ZvT.
2. Keep Zerglings scouting at all times. Take the Xel'Naga towers at all costs. Keep some lings out the front of the enemy's base. This will really help in knowing whether you should continue to drone or to start getting that critical mass of units.
3. COMMIT, OR DON'T COMMIT. If you start running your army into the enemy and you suddenly think it's a bad idea, DON'T TURN BACK . If your army has already taken fire you absolutely MUST engage. This may give you some stupid losses to begin with, but after many games you will gain a feeling of whether your army will do enough damage in the fight or not.
4. If you're going Ling/Bling, ALWAYS start making Banelings after you have defended a big rush. This is to ensure that you will not be caught off-guard by a continuing mass of marines.
5. With your constant scouting -> If you see a Command Center under construction, or you have noticed that they are expanding, you must absolutely drone up or take an expansion yourself. This is an obvious tip as well, but I found that reminding myself of it constantly forced me to keep scouting for that expansion.
That's that! As always guys, feel free to add me on SEA. My details are in my signature. Hit me up for a game if I'm on, no matter what skill level you are!
Peace0UtY0y0y0Y0Y0Y000y)0y0
Special shoutouts to: Signs (NesTea of SEA ), mOOnGLaDe(best player ), Kelly (HF overseas! )
___________________________________ eLim | iNFENSUS eSports NA
[TheFavez] mOOnGLaDe, PiG, Nv
I agree with the original statement in 3, but definitely not with 4. If you just cleaned up a push, your first priority should be getting scouting lings back out on the map so you can see what is happening next, if hes expanding or gong to push more. If hes expanding and you made a bunch of banelings that could have been mutas, then you'll be putting yourself in a worse-off situation.
ELABORATE PLEASE FLAUNT!
That's a good point Zergtastic, but I still believe at least 4 or 5 banelings should be made instinctively. Even with proper scouting and preparation, on some maps it is just too hard to start preparing as soon as you see the army moving out. This may just be because I'm still relatively slow at the game, so I'll practice some games with and without this tactic.
Thanks for the feedback ^_^
___________________________________ eLim | iNFENSUS eSports NA
[TheFavez] mOOnGLaDe, PiG, Nv
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