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The beginning
With Summer holidays coming to an end I thought I'd write a quick recap about what I've achieved and how I got there and etc. So for the holidays I had a goal of getting NA GM as I had time to actually grind out games. I looked up the necessary points and it was 1400+ to get to near gm level. So I started laddering on NA, went up to the 1400 mark not playing tons but some every day. I think around this point was the last wT of the year which i got glade in 2nd round, I got a lead but threw it through poor engagements which was frustrating.

The oh noes no computer on holidays
SantaSmash was on the 16th of December and I had wanted to go to it but then my family went up the coast on the 16th. TT. Anyway I decided that I'll become bad again by the time I got back, so playing the last few days before I left was pointless. I decided that I'd get 1500 elo in league instead, which I promptly gave up on after gaining 100 elo (currently sitting at 1300). So I went back to sc2 for the last few days and maintained my 1400 points. Then I got back on the 21st and started playing again.

The improving
At some point I found fenner's stuff (I think it might have been before the wT) and learnt a lot from it. I found out that he had gotten NA GM and being the competitive person I am wanted to get it even more to get back on his level (I used to consider fenner a player around my skill level). At one point I ended up playing a few practice games with him and got rolled every time. So I kept practicing, trying to get as good as I could when savior posted his 80 supply guide zvp thingy. Personally I hadn't really considered hitting such a supply before, only aiming for 70. So with this and the video fenner did on hitting 70 supply by 7:20 I tried to get my zvp opener to a high level.

Eventually I started watching ninja's stream and he showed a zvp build where he sacrificed early injects for insane creep spread in zvp. I took this build and put my own spin on it to come up with the zvp build I use now which I feel is incredibly good and feels very solid. Scarlett uses a similar build so I took input from here games as well to improve it.

The grinding
On the 30th I decided to start recording all my games with sc2gears so that I could see how many I was averaging a day and my win rate in each matchup. I played a lot for the first few days of the new year. I reached 1700+ points on the NA server and 4th in masters overall before the season ended. I kept practicing and practicing until GM came out and I GOT IT! Woot! I reached 1st and maintained it for a couple hours which was pretty awesome for me.

The tournaments
Anyways the Internet City LAN was on the 19th of January and I wanted to do well in it. Maybe a week or two before the LAN I saw that KingKong was coming, I had planned to hit 400 games between the LAN and the new year but I didn't put in the effort and so only hit 300. Regardless I kept practicing, learning a gasless zvz style, and finally the LAN came around. I took out zenaku in the first round in relatively straight forward games and then moved on to KingKong in the second round. PiG had given me advice on how to play against KingKong which I promptly forgot about in the first game. Reminding myself to play safe and solid against such an aggressive player I took the 2nd game in one sided fashion. The third game he won with a strong ling bane attack that punished my greedy build and ended the game. I made my way through the losers bracket, 2-0ing everyone except a Brazilian Protoss who very nearly knocked me out of the tournament. I made it back to the finals against KingKong where he used the same ling bane pressure and I again made a mistake and lost to it. In the next game I knew he had only went hatch gas pool or 10 pool macro in our games so far. I decided that 10 pool bane would beat both of these builds and went for it with my tournament life on the line. Unfortunately he chose this game to open 15 pool and held my 10 pool bane easily and won the game. I played well and won $75, coming 2nd which was what I expected to come.

On the Monday following the event was the wT Major, I entered it and made my way to the ro8 where I played fenner, I managed to 2-0 him which I was happy with and make it to the semis without dropping a map. In the semis I had Arthur, a Korean Protoss player formerly of team slayers. In game 1 he used a well executed immortal sentry to take me out. I defended decently but he was quite simply on a higher level. Game 2 I played bad and he walked all over me with a gateway timing. For the bronze match I had mafia, I don't rly remember the games but I ended up losing 1-2. It was disappointing because I held the advantage in all three games from a theoretical standpoint but didn't deliver in the games. I finished 4th, one placing from the money. However, I did win 20 power rank points which was nice.

The next day was the pX weekly, again I made it through the tournament to the ro8 where I once again played fenner, this time I won 2-1 getting severely out played on abyssal city. I was happy with this result though because I knew afterwards that I had reached my goal of at least being as good as fenner once again. In the semis I played mafia where he beat me down 2-0 once again showing my inferiority to him. I finished 3rd/4th place and won 5 power rank points and once again finished just outside of the money.

The now
At the time of writing this I am currently top 100 GM on NA and going to play in the the SEACL on Sunday against Iris Academy. Hopefully, we can perform and prove that despite how depleted roster we can still be one of the strongest teams in the league. With a lineup of PiG, myself, Sang, manly, shortizz and cure I think we will be able to really do well this season and tbh I think we will be disappointed with anything less than a finals appearance.

THE STRATS BRO
Lastly here's the builds I've been using in each matchup:

Zvp:

15 pool
15 hatchery*
15 overlord
15 drone
16 zergling
17 Queen
20 hatchery
21 queen
24 overlord
30 queen
34 overlord
36 overlord

* at 150 minerals send the drone to the natural and bully the probe around. If you can't get the hatch by the time you've hit 350 minerals, make a drone to go up to 16 supply then if you still can't get it by the time your getting up to the 400 mineral make an overlord and then take the hatch.

Your 1st queen injects your main then makes a tumor at the natural then another at the third. Everything else goes to injects. This build aims to hit 70 supply by 8 mins with baller creep spread, you can adjust the timings of the gas, roach warren and Evo to your own liking. For reference of this style look for scarlett games.

Zvt:

15 hatchery
16 pool
17 overlord*
4 queens and 2-4 lings
26 overlord
5:10 double gas
6:00-6:20 third base
Speed with first 100 gas
Double Evo when you have another 100 gas
Lair after you start 1-1

*we go 17 overlord and save larva until we are sure that he is not 2 raxing. The overlord over your natural should be able to spot any aggression. If he hasn't brought more scvs, built a bunker attacked with marines or something by the time your hatch has finished then make the drones larva into drones.

Get gas timings past your initial 2 at your own preference. For reference of this style look for scarlett games.

Zvz:

15 pool
16 hatchery
15 overlord
15 queen
17 ling
22 queen
24 overlord
Double gas at 5 mins and roach warren shortly after

Use the initial lings to scout his gas timing and react accordingly, make a few roaches when your roach warren finishes and add on an Evo and lair at 6:30ish if he is not being aggressive. For reference of this style, look for vortix and snute games.

Thanks for reading guys