Game 14: PvZ, ST, Loss

Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Gold 19
MMR Change: -11 (1325)
Recap: This is a juicy one. If any loyal readers were going to watch one game to give me advice, this would be the one I'd want them to look at.

We're in cross positions. He opens safe with gas-pool-hatch. I know early pressure won't do anything so I open with 3-gate sentry into an expansion. Once it's up I add a few stalkers and push his front while I build a robo. He has spines and a ton of speedlings.

This is probably where I start to go off the rails. Up till here we're even, or I'm slightly ahead in supply and harvesters. But so far I've seen nothing but speedlings and spines, and that screams mutas to me.

I hate mutas. It's not so much that I don't know what to do about them. It's that, in a metagame sense, they're a direct counter to my playstyle. I say "Okay, my micro is bad, but I'll have more harvesters and more units and more expansions." And mutas say, "I don't care how many units you have, you're going to lose all those probes you carefully built up unless you can play some high-micro defense."

So I probably overreact. I put down cannons in my main and natural and put down a stargate for phoenixes. Right at this point my observer gets to his base and doesn't find a spire, just a roach warren.

So I think, hey, lings and roaches, and I have a stargate up, let's get void rays to add to the colossus ball. I'm still worried that I haven't put any pressure on so I push out with the one colossus and one void ray.

That's where I lose. He's gotten a hydra den up and a few waves out. I thought I got a decent engage with good FFs so I stuck with it and lost bad.

I pull back and try to get a third up, but I get caught and die trying to defend it, but I never really recovered from that push.

Lessons:

Don't overreact on your hunches. My scouting was timed exactly wrong, seeing the mass lings right before the first roaches came out, and the roach warren right before the hydras, so I stayed worried about mutas the whole time.

I should have gone with either the cannons or the stargate, but not both. (Turns out I shouldn't have gone with either, but still.)

Pretty sure Day 9 has gone on about this at length. Adjust the build with one thing to respond, don't go swinging wildly trying to counter.

The other thing was that engagement was clearly not as favorable as I thought. I could have pushed the front of his creep, then fallen back once I put up the force fields. Worry him and let me build up my death ball with adjustments for what his build actually is. Then, I could have expanded with a big force controlling the middle instead of having to try to sneak it out.

Macro Benchmarks:
Probes per minute: 4.93
CBs per minute: 2.28
AUR: 800

I definitely let some CB build up, and there were periods of resource float that could be smoothed out. I felt like it was basically pretty good, but it might be one of those cases where it's deceptive. I'm coming back to this replay a few times.

Game 13: PvP, XNC, Loss

Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Gold 6
MMR Change: -10 (1336)
Recap: He went with an odd 3-gate zealot rush that I actually now realize is the same opening as Game 8. Maybe there was a TL post I missed.

This time, though, I didn't adjust and it rolled me over early.


Lessons: Well, there's a new PvP build out there I'm not familiar with. It's probably designed to kill a 4 gate before it gets off the ground, where mine is designed to weather the first push by killing tons of stalkers.

So, without adjustments, theirs beats mine, too. With adjustments to survive a zealot rush, mine rides a tech advantage to victory.

The rough thing here is that I actually had it scouted-- I saw the second gate go up before the core, but I didn't recognize it because it went down right as the first gate finished and I assumed it was a core.

Game 12: PvT, BG, Loss

Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Plat 21
MMR Change: -10 (1346)
Recap: Killed by the early three rax push.

Lessons: Well, my PvT in general comes down to whether I die on that first bio push or not. I'd like to get better at it, which I think comes down to FF micro.

This game, though, I got supply blocked 3 times before 50 food. I just should have had a lot more stuff waiting and I didn't. I just blew my build order. It would be good to get some polish on it, actually. Any Terrans want to run a few games where you 3 rax rush me?

Game 11: PvZ, ST, Win

Link:Replay
Opponents' Rank: Silver 4
MMR Change: +10 (1356)
Recap: I was setting up for my usual 3-gate sentry expand when this guys stole my second gas. Well, I have one strong 1-gas build, and it's the 4 gate. So I 4 gate, and he barely had anything there.

That earned me a little mild BM complaining about the "skillgate", but I talked to the guy afterwards explaining that the gas steal is pretty much an invitation to four gate and he seemed pretty cool about it.

Seriously, though, I love me a macro game, but if you hatch first and steal my gas, it's four gate time.

Lessons: Not much. Possibly that I should four gate more. I was trying it for a while, but I realized that running a good four gate requires good micro and smooth early game execution under pressure-- exactly my weaknesses-- and doesn't reward good macro or game management-- my strengths. I figure it's better to play to my strengths.

It's still a good build to keep in your back pocket for when people get greedy, though.

Game 10: PvZ, ST, Win

Link:Replay
Opponents' Rank: Silver 19
MMR Change: +10 (1346)
Recap: Another thwarted 7RR, followed by quick pressure to finish it off.


Lessons: Well, I can cross 7RR off the list of stuff that kills me. It's easy to scout and easy to get the cannon up and sentry out before it hits. Unless my opponents are bad enough at execution to make a dangerous build look bad, it's a free win for me.

So the question is why so many Zs seem to think it's a good way to open at this level.

Game 9: PvT, DQ, Win

Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Gold 2
MMR Change: +11 (1336)
Recap: Wow, this felt easy. He opened with 2 fast rax and pushed with a handful of marines and 3 SCVs. I killed it with my initial zealot/stalker/sentry. He shut down my expansion with another pack of marines, but I killed them when they came up the ramp and expanded to my back door.

Did the usual tech to colossus with range, stomped on a minor tank/marauder force, and walked up his ramp while expanding.

Lessons: Things got a little rocky macro-wise after I canceled the first expansion, and again while I killed the second push, and once more as I was pushing out with a third coming online.

Also, it wasn't necessary this time, but I really should watch my ramp more closely and split his army as it comes up.

Macro Benchmarks:
Probes per minute: 4.56
Chronoboosts per minute: 2.08
AUR: 729

Obviously these aren't perfect measurements of macro execution, since they're going to go up with the number of bases. On the other hand, I like games with lots of bases. I tend to win them.

Game 8: PvP, SP, Win

Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Platinum 3 (Yay! I'm back to being matched against platinums after that horrific slide.)
MMR Change: +13 (1325)
Recap: Another bout of unexpected early pressure. Did someone shift the PvP metagame while I was away? This time was a zealot rush, which I scouted and threw down a second gate of my own. His micro was definitely better than mine and he killed more probes than he should have given that our forces were equal, but for now I'm willing to accept being out-microed if I keep up my macro, which I did.

He tried again with another wave which I held easily. Once I knew I wasn't under pressure, I expanded and got my robo. I pushed out with a few immortals but he held his ramp with FFs. (At this point I should have scouted better, because he took a ninja expansion shortly afterwards. That could have been nasty had I not expanded to a third myself.)

I got colossi, broke his ramp, stomped on his army, then hunted down his expansion.

Lessons: If I think I have a contain, scout the expos! (Unlike the other lessons, this falls well within the scope of things I want to be working on.)

I made a couple mistakes trying to break his ramp-- on the first try, I brought an observer, but let it get into range of a cannon. On the second, successful, try, I used my collosi to break the forcefields, but this accidentally sent them to the front of my army where they got killed.

Again, these are micro mistakes that I make up for with superior macro and game management, and that's well within my game plan. Just making a note of it.

Game 7: PvP, XNC, Win

Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Gold 1
MMR Change: +13 (1312)
Recap: This was an interesting game. He hit very early with 3 zealots and did a decent amount of damage as I had to pull some probes. I held and got an immortal out in time for his next wave so he pulled back, but took advantage of the contain to expand. My second was coming up later but I had a lead in tech and pushed out with 2 collosus with range.

Here he surprised me-- he split up his army and baited my colossus in. I thought I had his whole army behind a choke point, but he swept the other half around in a flank. Very clever, and it did a lot more damage than it otherwise would have, killing both my colossus. I won the engagement and pushed into his natural, where a few waves of warp-ins let him defend.

I pulled back, but I had expanded during that push and put down another robo, and the next push was decisive.

Lessons: Again, I let the early pressure shake me a bit as the contain threw off my build order. I know that my macro slips in battles, and I'm taking steps to correct that, but it also slips when I start trying to make build adjustments on the fly.

The thought process seems to go--"Yikes, my money is high because I couldn't expand when I expected. I'd better make an adjustment like putting down another gate and starting teching."

When it should probably be reversed: "This contain will force my money up if I don't do something other than expand." Same buildings, different trigger, faster results.

It's nice to have macro good enough that I can feel that decision happen. When floating money was my default position, I wasn't really making choices like that. This feels like playing Starcraft.

Game 6: PvT, ST, Win

Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Gold 1
MMR Change: +13 (1299)
Recap: I hold an initial bio push at my ramp with FFs, then expand and ride the macro wave to victory. He tries to mech up in the center of the map, which I pushed into a little too hard at one point and lost a lot of units. He also actually does a great job of anticipating tech timings, so he had vikings out to meet my first wave of colossi and ghosts for my first wave of templar.

I countered by having more stuff. A lot more stuff.

Lessons: This was actually a little rocky early one. I blew pylons. The third one always needs to be built while I'm scouting with my probe, so I can get distracted sometimes. Then once the robo is down and I'm building immortals I tend to miss one at 50 or 58. That's bad because it's right before this 3-rax push is hitting.

That rockiness made me less confident in my ability to hold the push and made me delay the expo until after it hit. In most PvTs, I'd have had it up already and been trying to defend it.

I did a better job of spending down three bases worth of cash flow, though.

Game 5: PvP, Metal, Loss

Link:Replay
Opponents' Rank: Gold 2
MMR Change: -10 (1286)
Recap: This one hurts because I lost on what are usually my strengths. I let money pile up and gates stand idle. He also shocked me by taking out 2 colossi very quickly with chargelots, which I thought would die a lot faster than they did. I could have prevented that with better army positioning and actually getting some force fields off. It shouldn't have mattered, though, because I should have been much further ahead.

Lessons: Well, this is the same story as always-- watch my gate cooldowns better, and build more gateways or another robo if my money creeps up.

Also, I have a tendency to think I'm invincible when I have an advantage in colossi count, and I got punished hard for it this game.

But if you have 900 minerals in the bank, you really can't complain about anything else.

Game 4: PvZ, XNC, Win

Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Silver 3
MMR Change: +12 (1296)
Recap: I scout the late expansion and early roach warren, so I know it's some kind of rush with a prime number of roaches. These are pretty vicious against my normal build order, but if I know it's coming I put down a forge and get an early sentry.

I split his roaches on my ramp and they die to my cannon. I use the next round of warp-ins to put pressure on while I expand-- I'm intending to use my economic advantage and just go into normal robo play, but he doesn't even have enough left to hold against my initial pressure.

Lessons: Well, my plan for roach rushes seems to work okay. Putting quick pressure on right after is against my usual instincts, but I think it's important. This guy rightly gave up on the rush right away and pumped drones, and if I hadn't punished him for it right away he might have made a decent recovery.

Game 3: PvT, DQ, Loss

Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Gold 11
MMR Change: -14 (1284)

Recap: Quick and dirty. T pushes out right after my expo goes up with two ghosts and three rax worth of bio. I die.

Lessons: This is one of T's early pushes that I still have no idea what to do with: 3 rax with two ghosts. I can't point to any production lapses, and in fact I'm pretty sure I would have had it handled were it not for two EMPs. I just don't know what to do against that at that stage of the game-- maybe just back off and wait to recharge the shields? That would mean sacrificing my expo, so maybe if I know it's coming, which I did, I should delay the expansion, put down an extra gateway, and try to hold my ramp with my army spread out.

Production-wise, I was fine. There's a little bump in my build currently where I hold off on the expansion until I can see what my observer sees, and that pushes my money up to 700 or so, which is awkward, but against tech builds like this one it seems important to delay.

Game 2: PvT, XNC, Win

Replay

Opponent's Rank: Silver 1 (Boo!)

MMR Change: +12 (1298)

This was a weird one-- the kind of thing that happens at lower leagues and can really throw you off. I can usually anticipate the flow of PvT tech changes-- My collosus count goes up, they add on vikings, I slowly switch over to templar.

Instead, he stayed on mass marauder for way longer than I thought, and I was looking elsewhere when the engagement started and he stimmed and ran up and wiped out a sizable colossus/stalker ball.

But if you doubt the power of looking away from the battle to macro, check out what happens after that: the remnants of his forces push into my base to find the army I'd built in the meantime, and I walk over it easily.

He surprises me again by going mass vikings instead of gradually adding them to the army. Fortunately I'd already started the templar switch. (Once the engagement started I should probably have realized the colossi were goners and just done as much damage as I could instead of futilely running them across the map.)

A few good psi storms mop things up, but this was a macro win.

Lessons:

Well, there are some hideous problems in here. Money float and supply blocks, including one at a crucial time that I thought would cost me the game. There's the aforementioned thrown-away army that could have been saved with force fields. Also, I have expos go up and don't transfer probes for ages.

I respond poorly to some harassment, too, but I'm basically fine with not having good micro.

Game 1: PvT, Metal, Win

Replay

Opponent's Rank: Gold 3

Unadjusted MMR change: +10 (1286)

An auspicious beginning. He lifted to the gold at the start and I caught it by checking the watchtowers with my scout. I streamed my first few units in to kill SCVs, and the rest is pretty much academic.

Areas for improvement:

Well, since this was so unorthodox, I got thrown off my game early and let the micro at the base distract me. Definitely let my money get higher than it should during that period. Tap more! A simple 6ss would have kept production up and I could probably have ended it early.

Once I had control, I expanded a ton and once again didn't put down the structures to spend it well. As my third is coming on line, I need to add *at least* three more gates and another tech structure.

Introduction

Recently I tried to take advantage of a week to myself to try to step up my Starcraft 2 game and maybe earn that promotion to platinum that's been eluding me forever.

I documented that experience at Reddit. The results: a vast improvement in my macro, a huge spike in the quality of players I was being matched against, and not a inch of budging in my displayed ranking.

And that's fine. The displayed ranking is just for show, and I could feel the improvement, which was always the real goal. It's a little funny that I could rise 70 places in the rankings while essentially stagnant in skill, then get have a quantum leap forward in ability and not budge.

After that week, though, I didn't get to play for a while, and now I'm a little rusty again. I have some time to play, and I'm going to try to repeat the process. Massing games isn't all that helpful to me. I think I need to play a few games, then go carefully over the replays and evaluate my progress.

The areas I'm working on are macro-related: tapping my production facilities, keeping my money low, mainly. I'm also working on improving my scouting.

This time, I'll be doing an analysis of each game, win or lose, and giving it its own entry here. As before, I'd welcome any feedback and commentary.

SC2Ranks Profile

According to this analysis, my hidden MMR is 1276, and a promotion comes at 1500.

Let's get started.