I haven't been playing this game very much recently
Partly because of infamous 2 (awesome) and partly because of an epic slump I have been in recently which took me from the verge of a Diamond promotion to night on a Gold demotion.
I did beat a Diamond protoss the other day so perhaps I am out of the slump but such recent events have left me thinking.
Firstly that all the interesting starcraft happens in Gold league ^^
When compared to Platinum and Diamond at least. Let me tell you a story -
I was playing a Gold protoss on XNC. I took out his scouting probe when he ran it through my mineral line so I happily 15 pooled, 15 hatched. I wasn't particularly worried about any proxy pylon shenanigans but I sent 2 lings to scout around and also took the 2 towers. I continued to macro while poking up with a ling every now and then to see what I could see.
What I did see got my zerg sense tingling - or rather what I didn't see. He should have maybe 4-6 sentries and a zealot or 2 and be readying an expo but all I saw was 2 zealots and 1 sentry. I am thinking noob mass void ray or DT so I drop a evo chamber and get 2 extra queens. Also scouting the other expo spots just in case. I send in the sacrificial overlord to confirm and see no army and a twilight council and I smile to myself, He's going DT's. So I prepare and continue to drone and took a third. I had enough lings at home to deal with several DT's and was feeling fairly confident.
Then out comes masssssss speed lots and archons 0.o?
In Platinum and Diamond (low Diamond at least) everyone plays standard macro / standard cheese. No one really tries anything that makes me go wow. But I actually had more trouble with Gold players than Diamonds
That sort of leads me to the second point
Zerg is a race where luck plays such a big part - at least until you can afford lair and get overlord speed etc. Everything I scouted in that game pointed to DT's and because I couldn't guess mass speed lots with archons I was simply not able to prepare for it. I should have massed units while he was on 1 base but I, like many zerg, have been conditioned to feel an overwhelming pressure to get a good econ up ASAP. Because if we don't econ up we lose later on plain and simple.
So recently I have been feeling frustrated with the guesswork involved with zerg and even to the point where I don't get that triumphant feeling when I guess right and deny the protoss or terran cheese totally.
I feel it is far too hard to defend an attack at times, even when you know its coming, as zerg units are just crap. The lack of any aggressive or counter aggressive ability from the zerg until well into mid game, coupled with very poor defensive capabilities means that early game for zerg is very stressful and the slightest misstep has you boned for the rest of the game.
If I crush an early cheese or early push I have no ability to counter attack. I must punish by macroing and hope I make no mistakes in the next 10 minutes. Yes a failed cannon rush does cost the protoss some money. But a cheese can outright win the game but will never give the win outright to the zerg should it fail.
It allows the zerg to macro but if he makes enough small mistakes or 1 big one the terran or protoss wins anyway.
Need I mention close spawns >.<
I know this is the zerg play style but recently I have just been feeling less enamored with zerg because of this coupled with the guesswork. I guess right and my reward is I get the opportunity to live to make more mistakes later on. Or possibly win if I play perfectly or close to it.
Maybe I am just too old or too slow to deal with the split second requirements of zerg
But either way I have been considering a race switch to random.
Is it worth the plunge given that I have played less than 20 games as terran or protoss or should I try to stick it out and iron out those 2 second inject delays that creep into my play during late midgame?
Will see what happens when I finally get internet back at my home TT
I agree as a fellow Zerg player the guessing game sucks, but I find that part of my wrong guesses are because I'm either emulating pro play too much, OR I'm assuming a 'common' build that I've normally gone up against when presented with such scouting info.
For example, you mentioned that you saw the Twilight Council - which may well be DTs because it's a common preference, but if you write down the whole list of possibilities there's quite a number!
Basically if they're staying on one base for too long (and you'll get a good sense of this after playing so many games), they're obviously teching or massing up an army. When you have your expansion half saturated and he hasn't expanded, it's probably a good idea to start making units :P
I can't comment on race switching, but sometimes I just play T or P for fun in 4v4s just for a chance of pace and when I need a break.
I have seen archon + charge lot before but usually off of 2 base
And matthras is exactly right, but one can only guess based on what they see and you kinda have to use metagame to narrow down the possibilities.
To beat his push I would have had to start unit production at about 25-30 drones but its hard to break the desperate scramble for econ thinking :P
Did you sacrifice one OL at around the 6min mark and another OL (to confirm the DT path) when you have OL speed done (if 6min scout shows nothing)? That should help a bit in scouting.
___________________________________
Early game loss = Cheese
Mid game Loss = All in
Late game Loss = Imbalance
Well I only sacrifice if I am worried about what he is doing. If i poke up the ramp and see a lot of stalkers don't need to sacrafice :P
didn't have lair in time nor did i have a second OL in position for a follow up sacrafice
It's XNC, you usually won't have a 2nd OL to sacrifice :P
Don't brood too much over it and try to establish a general thought process encompassing all possible options, and then just tick the possibilities off. Day9 demonstrates this in Daily #303.
I feel you didn't exactly go wrong in throwing down the Spore Crawlers and getting the additional Queens, as in the least you were covering some of the possibilities that could happen (which as you said, DT and air respectively). After all the extra queens can be used to inject further expos for macro purposes, and if there ever was a tech switch to DTs you're already prepared. Someone more experienced than me can correct me, though.
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