Pressure

ZvT(W) Arid plateau - I was ahead in macro the whole game. For some reason he never built more than 18 SCVs, which is the main reason I won. Still, I took some bruises early on having trouble defending the natural. In later games I try to be more conscious about walling it to prevent getting flanked there. I forgot to get zergling speed too. I’m lucky he wasn’t bright enough to go behind the mineral line. For the rest of the early midgame I hang on by a thread thanks to his timidity around the spine crawler, and soon enough the econ gap gets wide enough that there’s little he can do. Most engagements are pretty unimpressive, I rarely do more than focus fire. Replay

ZvT(L), Tal’darim Altar LE - This guy was a total asshole to me. He also beat me with a banshee rush that I wasn’t prepared for. In later games I (over?)reacted by producing lots and lots of queens. At 7:30 I scout his tech lab equipped starports and do nothing. Scouting without reacting is a waste of a good overlord. Should’ve cancelled the queen at the main, immediately gone to Lair and produced a queen at the natural. And dropped spore crawlers like mad. Replay

ZvZ(W), Metalopolis - I noticed that my opponent didn’t expand and decided to harass his main, which was pretty effective. He teched to mutas but I had way more macro. I could’ve blocked his ramp instead of letting him run past, and I could’ve orchestrated my attacks better. It also wouldn’t have killed me to get some roaches, or more banelings. Replay

ZvP(L), Arid plateau - I defended the natural very poorly, which I rectified in the next game. Besides that, I didn’t produce enough units and I didn’t micro them effectively, basically allowing my opponent to tease the roaches to death. Replay

ZvT(L), Arid plateau - Player didn’t take his natural, he cleverly took the 3rd and I stupidly didn’t post ling scouts on all the expos, or this would have been a very easy victory. I saw early on that he was going air so I teched and massed hydras, and held back my overlords, expecting mass cloaked banshees or something. I was completely ready for that. What I wasn’t ready for was 12 or 15 battlecruisers. Watching the replay, I realized that not only did I not build mass corruptors to counter (more hydras instead), but I used my hydras to attack, rather than moving them into a defensive position where they could’ve done more damage. I was shocked and awed and lost all of my mineral income at once. Mad turret turtling from this guy. He’s totally crazy. Replay

ZvZ(L), Entombed Valley - #1 issue, I missed zergling speed. At 3 minutes I should’ve scouted his natural as I went past. Seeing a 15 hatch, My response should have been to all-in lings. Instead I hatched as well. At 4:15 or so was another definitive moment to try to all-in. Instead I was droning, which was a mistake. He didn’t baneling up until around 8:00, so a huge window there for punishing his 15 hatch. Then some poor army management and I lose my advantage. I roach and spire, where I should’ve picked one, but good thing I had the spire. Blew my gas on roaches, thus couldn’t muster the corruptors to counter his mutas, though I didn’t know about those. Scout, React, Win. Below high gold, no zerg should win ZvZ with a 15 hatch. I’ve been there and learned that it leaves you wide open for early pool cheese. Replay

ZvP(W), Xel’Naga Caverns - I decided early on to put early ling pressure on him, but messed up my build order bad, and didn’t arrive in time to slip through or avoid heavy cannon defense. However, I denied his expansion, which put me ahead. A counter threw me off for a bit, but I just kept the pressure up. Toward the end I forgot injects and should’ve dropped the macro hatch earlier. Guy should have kept his prism hidden and dropped in the back of my main. That would’ve messed me up pretty good. Not a good idea for him to warp within sight or hearing range. Replay

ZvP(W), - This was a pretty good game. I didn’t do the most awesome ling harass in the world, I should’ve shut down the gateway instead of trying to push into the base, and also focused on keeping that ramp open. The game could’ve been over much sooner. I started feeling the resource drain and switched back to droning and luckily when he came to attack I had plenty of zerglings to defend. Plus his force field work was sloppy. I shifted into roaches and took gas. Supply blocked around 11 minutes and didn’t immediately spawn some overlords. At 12:27 I go for his ramp and immediately retreat. Too much to handle with just lings. Bring in the roaches. I forget to inject for a while after 11:00, which would’ve helped me produce more roaches and burn up my massive cash pool. I start to make a habit of hiding in the bushes by the Xel’Naga tower, which works to my advantage as I totally destroy his push with lings and +1 roaches. At 15:30 I make an attack against his base, but don’t pull out of the shield deathtrap soon enough. At 17 minutes I should have put down a macro hatch or taken an expansion. I see his army moving to defend the new expo around 18 minutes and decide it’s a perfect time to slam his gates with the +2 roaches. The army runs and mutas go in to waste the expo. Nice. If I was thinking, around 20 minutes I could’ve swarmed in with mutas and messed up all those probes before cannon cover came online. at 22-23 minutes I have no idea why he didn’t drop some force fields on that choke point to keep me from attacking his new expo. He could definitely see my units for a while. I think he gave up at 23 minutes after his army died, because though he had the resources he barely built anything else. Replay

ZvP(L), Xel’Naga Caverns - I put a lot of zergling pressure on early to try to break him because he didn’t wall or cannon up, but it wasn’t enough, so I started droning and moving to roaches, but the econ drain from throwing so many lings in put my army too far behind. I didn’t cause enough damage with the ling pressure. Probably should have stopped after the first or second wave, then committed to holding his natural until I could get 10 or so roaches in to finish it. Replay

ZvT(L), Shakura’s Plateau - So, my build order has started to trend toward early lings to try to poke the main, followed by massive droning and trying to watch for any moves to turn a ton of larvae into a counter. Got supply blocked a lot. :( Macro was great, but I should’ve just built some stuff instead of sitting on 2k minerals waiting for a sign. Even though I had the center of the map scouted, he just went along the edge and tankdropped to win. So, lesson: If I see air potential (scouted the starport) don’t just tech hydras and mutas. Overlord speed and post overlords at the sides of his main to scout incoming drops. My spire was too late for me to have produced mutas, but I could’ve parked hydras in the back to deny the drop until mutas popped. 5:50 I should have spammed lings and done a bust. He didn’t have the military to withstand it, from what I can see. At the time I morphed banelings a tank was in position to shut down busts. Replay

10 games. 4 wins to 6 losses.

Found this worldwide ranking and tracking page. SC2 Ranks Apparently in early December, 2011 I was ranked 6976 in the world! Wonder how that happened. I’m currently ranked #38,990 and solidly in the 77th percentile. This gives me a weird, but detailed idea of how I am developing compared to other players. The data don’t coincide with my feeling that in late december I worked hard to forget everything I’d learned about build orders and focus on good, safe 15 pool-first and strong macro, losing a lot of games meanwhile and losing a lot of ‘skill’, but apparently whenever I play my rank increases!

That’s all for today. I wanted to push into the top 25 but my match- ups have been mid-silver to high bronze, so it looks like I’m a low silver player. Hope I’m building up some fundamentals though that will help me push into gold next season. Seems like a lot of games. I alternated between doing a match, then writing a retro and checking the replay, then did 15 minutes of chores or reading or watching netflix. It’s a nice pomodoro-like alternation that helps me keep motivated when a few games in a row would usually finish me and I’d stop playing.  

This was a fun exercise for me and encouraged me to think immediately about what went wrong in each game, watch the replay, and try to improve.