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Thoughts and Progress! 12/9/2012

Alright almost a month has passed since my last blog with a lot happening! Firstly the new season as started and with it new goals. Previously my goals were to get to Korean Masters and finish high in SEA GM. I have achieved both in the previous season so its time for some new ones! In the short term I’m going to go for NA GM, I am going to put all my attention into achieving this goal. However its going to be tough, with around 400ms to the NA server I struggle a lot with basic micro, 4 gates are actually pretty damn hard to hold! As such I can’t stream while doing this, since it will only make things worse. This annoys me a little as I always enjoy streaming, however terribly I play, it makes laddering more fun. So this brings up the question of what to stream! I’ve decided to stay away from the SEA server like a plague, even last season I tried as much as possible to ladder elsewhere while managing my bonus pool. So there will be 0 Ladder on SEA, apart from team games of course!

In my previous blog I had 2 main areas of improvement that I wanted to work on, I am actually extremely happy with how both have gone!

PvT: I now have a very clear understanding of this matchup, what changed for me was unit compositions along with how to engage/optimal ways to micro. My build is also a lot tighter, having more stuff is always handy! Basically what I’ve discovered in PvT is when the Terran comes to pressure with his 2 medivacs+MM to not sit in my base and turtle but to try and force an engagement that suits me. This is allowing me to take a much earlier third (around 11 mins, previously it was 14 ^^) and basic macro will tell you why I am winning more! I’ve actually got a lot more confidence in gateway units now, especially blink stalkers. I am at a great point now where the matchup is starting to open up a bit, I can test very minor things and see how they go. Because now I know what works and what to look for!

Forcefields: Well they have gotten much better. Full stop. All I need to work on now is my multitasking/map awareness at my ramp so that I can trap that arsehole of a terran who thinks he can just stim and a move up my ramp.

As stated I am extremely happy with how both of these goals have gone, I am attributing that to writing it down. So its time for some new ones!

Tighten my PvZ: This sounds very simple but its actually hard. Recently I’ve had some trouble with early roach pressure due to trying to hold this style while being as greedy as possible. Unfortunately being as greedy as possible doesn’t really allow for too many mistakes! Bascically I’m skipping to many units and going for tech when I shouldn’t. My aim here is to develop an extremely strong macro style with upgrades/tech when I will need them. This just comes down to repetition and dealing with different stuff, the Korean server will be amazing for this I think.

Play more games: Last season I managed around 400ish games collectively, while I cant confirm this with win loss ratios etc due to sc2gears failing on me -.- I would like to play more. Seeing Spook hit around 2500 games played last season was incredible. That is almost 3 times as many 1v1’s than I’ve played since release. While I don’t want to play 2500 I’d love to get around 500-600 games played. This is again very easy to track and comes down to just getting into a routine.

While those are my 2 practice goals there is a bigger aim coming up. That of the EB expo. Qualifying for this event was enough for me, when I signed up I honestly did not think I would even remotely come close to qualifying. To actually achieve this while at a LAN was a huge deal for me and a massive boost to my confidence. I am actually almost dreading going, playing infront of a crowd will be a very difficult. As some of you may know I suffer greatly from anxiety while playing this game. My nerves are my biggest problem and getting ontop of them will be a challenge in itself. At the same time though I am incredibly excited, it’s the first time I have qualified for anything SC2 related and gone on an interstate trip for! This is actually another interesting point as I’ve previously been to Sydney Olympic Park for athletics, having competed there twice. I have never been nervous playing sport or competing, I’ve always just been confident I can win and not worried about anything else. SC2 is different for me though and I’m not sure why, I can never seem to get into this mindset (I think deepdown I just know I’m bad ). My aim for this event is to win a game, if I can do that I can go home very happy. While this sounds pretty pathetic it’s legitimately how I feel with my current skill level and that of the other people who qualified and are still to qualify. If I play my best and still lose all my games I will still be pretty happy with myself. The flipside is if I get too nervous and play horribly. This is what I’m dreading, the bonus is that this is probably the best case scenario as it will be the best learning experience possible. I am also looking forward to meeting a lot of people that I haven’t yet!

Anyway that’s about it, thank you for reading!