I'm going to post my results in this blog post, so if you're the kind who's going to go 'ugh what a dirty show off ugh' if my results are good then don't read on. Similarly, if you're gonna go 'rofl what a noob' if my results are bad then don't read on either.
Basically, if you're a judgmental bitch, don't read on.
I shall cover them from best to worst in terms of actual grade . I did a module review here, if you're keen to read it.
PH2110 - Logic
Predicted Grade - B+
Actual Grade - A!
Thoughts:
Wow I didn't expect an A for this! Even though I think my mid terms and finals were both aced, my online quizzes were really bad, like 1/10 and 2/10 or something. I guess EVERYONE also did that badly.. so it was evened out by bell curve.
I have a really good record with Philo mods! I should take more haha. Philosophy of Religion next sem! (or the sem after next)
PL3235 - Social Psychology
Predicted Grade - B+
Actual Grade - A-
Thoughts:
Hmm, nothing surprisingly here, was expecting somewhere around B+/A- because my mid terms were decent (not top notch so didnt expect A), and my essay assignment got an A. Guess my finals was around A- level again, so I got this grade.
PL3232 - Biological Psychology
Predicted Grade - B
Actual Grade - B- :(
Thoughts:
Aww damn. Got lower than I had hoped for. My mid terms didn't do very well, and it was not a matter of not studying enough - I normally finish everything that I PLANNED to study. So it's a problem of not planning to study enough lol.
Like imagine there are 100 bits of information in the textbook, and I selectively study 80. Then turns out they test on the remaining 20 bits of information instead.
My group's presentations weren't very good in my opinion, comparatively speaking (with the other groups')
I don't think my finals did THAT badly, probably about Bish standard again, so I guess my results are logical. :(
Well, at least I didn't fall to a C. Worse grade of my NUS life so far! :(
Ok if you are keen you will realize I didn't follow what I said of reporting them from the best to the worst... because I have alot to say for the last 2 haha.
PL2132 - Research and Statistical Methods 2
Predicted Grade - B+
Actual Grade - A- !??
Thoughts:
Wow. Mathematically speaking, this grade is outright IMPOSSIBLE.
I got a C+ for my lab report, a huge disappointment, and worth a big 25% of my overall grade.
The CAP points to grades are as follows:
5 points for A/A+,
4.5 for A-
4 for B+
3.5 for B
3 for B-
2.5 for C+
25% X 2.5 = 0.625
Assuming I get the best possible grades, As, for the rest of the components of the grade,
75% x 5 = 3.75
Total 3.75 + 0.625 = 4.375! That's below the required 4.5 of an A- grade!
That means that even if I managed to get straight As for my 2 quizzes, mid terms, AND Finals.. it still shouldn't be possible that I get A-! Because the BEST POSSIBLE SCORE I should get is 4.375, which is a B+
So I've no idea what happened here.. the only thing I can think of is that my lab report was not marked on a bell curve - e.g. my C+ was an absolute grade, and maybe noone got A? So after bell curving it was actually higher than C+.
The real shocker is the next one:
SSB2216 - Employee Management in Singapore
Predicted Grade - C
Actual Grade - A- !?!?!!!
Thoughts:
SHOCKER. SHOCKER.
When I received the NUS SMS this morning containing my results, I was first a little surprised with the number of A- I got, as I really did expect more Bs, but my eyes were locked on one phrase:
SSB2216 - A-
HOW IN THE WORLD?!?!
Let's take it from the top. Our presentation. The moment my group concluded our presentation, my lecturer walked over to us and pulled us aside. I can't remember her exact words, but the monologue went briefly like this:
"I was quite disappointed you know. I expected you all to do better. Everything is wrong! Besides that slide where you included the stats which was good, everything else was wrong! - points out what was wrong -. Wrong... disappointed! bad! .... disapppointed....! wrong! " (those were the few words that stood out)
So ok our presentation went horribly. Then for our report, her qualitative feedback wasn't exactly positive either. I can't remember what she said besides the fact that it wasn't generally positive.
Same goes for my individual article analysis - I was pretty sure I was out of point too lol. Coupled with her negative comments ... gone.
So there are 2 components left - class participation and finals.
I must say my class participation SHOULD be pretty decent... I speak up almost every week and the lecturer definitely knows me well by name. I would think I am in the top % of the class in this component? Because most people dont really speak up in class! So I'm lucky.
And finals... I basically smoked my way through? It's really a GP-style kind of thing and I just smoked both essays and really didn't know what I was writing. Didn't plan out my essays well beforehand, and was just writing as much nonsense as I can and throwing in fake facts/stats possible facts as usual like GP LOL.
Guess my smoke was smokey enough!
Because as compared to my project group mates I did do considerably better, so I think was my smokey essay and class participation that put me ahead. :S
But really really shocked with this grade, and thankful also of course! :D
Yup so A A- B- A- A- = 4.3, and with my last sem's CAP of 4.4, my overall CAP is now 4.35 !
Whew, still in safe zone. Hope can do better next sem and push it closer to 4.5! (Wow I need a 5 next sem to even get above 4.5 mad.)
Thank God for the decent results anyhooo.
Sunday 29 May 2011
Thursday 19 May 2011
Road to Masters (4)
[spoiler=What is this column about?]
I am crAzerk, and I've been playing Starcraft since the original. I love the game, and I love writing, thus the chance to combine both passions excited me to no end. So here I am, providing (hopefully) entertaining writeups for you guys!
I aspire to be in Masters League. And I will strive hard to fight my way out of Diamond. This column will document my journey. Each time, I will write about five or more games that I've played on ladder, and discuss my struggles and thoughts about each game.[/spoiler]
Day 3 of my push to Masters league.. I'm doing so badly I am considering what I thought about the previous post - renaming this to 'Life of a Diamond noob'. For now, dreaming about Masters seems to be like a fat clumsy office worker who can't throw a piece of rubbish into a bin accurately dreaming about being in the NBA.
Also, I have decided to make this a weekly column.. just that I'm not sure which day I should post it on. Is Friday good?
ANYWAY. Let's get on to the games!
1) vs MicromaN (Protoss) on XNC
Last night after my devastating day of like 10% win rate or something, I did some reflection and figured the spanishiwa opening wasn't working for my ZvP.
After some training with my Toss training partner(Narsus, a Masters toss), he concluded that roach/ling all in builds were imba LOL. Because we played quite a few games where he tried to 3 gate expand and I just kept roach/sling all-in him and he didn't really come close to holding off any of them. Is it a build order loss? I don't know. Assuming ideal micro (perfect FFs, perfect ling surround, etc) from both sides, it seems to favor the Zerg.
Thus, I decided to go roach/ling all my games today! (for toss)
I opened with a standard 14 gas/14 pool (for earlier ling speed, and also because any decent toss will block a 14 hatch) into 21 hatch.
As usual, I gas stole him the moment he put his Cybernetics Core down.
There are 2 reasons why you steal it at this exact timing -
1) When he JUST got his CC, it's probably when he JUST has 150 minerals. So he won't have minerals to build an Assimilator down before this! And if he DOES put his 2nd gas down before this, he is delaying his CC by 75 minerals!
Oh ok I combined the 2 into 1 point. Anyway yea gas steal really limits his tech routes SO much, it basically prevents any quick stargate rushes or DT rushes. And you should cancel about 2-3 times (just before complete) and on the 3rd time you can just run out of his base (do the mineral pathing trick to get past his zealot.. but he'll prob have a stalker/sentry out to kill you though)
In addition, gas steal will limit his sentries assuming he still goes a 3gate expand, which works wonders for the build I'm going.
At about 7 minutes, he STILL hasn't expanded. This was when warning bells began going off in my head. 1 base play means some kind of cheesy crap like maybe blink stalkers DTs or some funny shenanigans.
I am crAzerk, and I've been playing Starcraft since the original. I love the game, and I love writing, thus the chance to combine both passions excited me to no end. So here I am, providing (hopefully) entertaining writeups for you guys!
I aspire to be in Masters League. And I will strive hard to fight my way out of Diamond. This column will document my journey. Each time, I will write about five or more games that I've played on ladder, and discuss my struggles and thoughts about each game.[/spoiler]
Day 3 of my push to Masters league.. I'm doing so badly I am considering what I thought about the previous post - renaming this to 'Life of a Diamond noob'. For now, dreaming about Masters seems to be like a fat clumsy office worker who can't throw a piece of rubbish into a bin accurately dreaming about being in the NBA.
Also, I have decided to make this a weekly column.. just that I'm not sure which day I should post it on. Is Friday good?
ANYWAY. Let's get on to the games!
1) vs MicromaN (Protoss) on XNC
Last night after my devastating day of like 10% win rate or something, I did some reflection and figured the spanishiwa opening wasn't working for my ZvP.
After some training with my Toss training partner(Narsus, a Masters toss), he concluded that roach/ling all in builds were imba LOL. Because we played quite a few games where he tried to 3 gate expand and I just kept roach/sling all-in him and he didn't really come close to holding off any of them. Is it a build order loss? I don't know. Assuming ideal micro (perfect FFs, perfect ling surround, etc) from both sides, it seems to favor the Zerg.
Thus, I decided to go roach/ling all my games today! (for toss)
 |
| As usual, gas steal! Cancel and remake, cancel and remake! :D |
As usual, I gas stole him the moment he put his Cybernetics Core down.
There are 2 reasons why you steal it at this exact timing -
1) When he JUST got his CC, it's probably when he JUST has 150 minerals. So he won't have minerals to build an Assimilator down before this! And if he DOES put his 2nd gas down before this, he is delaying his CC by 75 minerals!
Oh ok I combined the 2 into 1 point. Anyway yea gas steal really limits his tech routes SO much, it basically prevents any quick stargate rushes or DT rushes. And you should cancel about 2-3 times (just before complete) and on the 3rd time you can just run out of his base (do the mineral pathing trick to get past his zealot.. but he'll prob have a stalker/sentry out to kill you though)
In addition, gas steal will limit his sentries assuming he still goes a 3gate expand, which works wonders for the build I'm going.
 |
| Zergling: "I'm bored. Where's the kind probe who is supposed to come play with me?" |
At about 8 minutes, my sac OL spotted his TwilightCouncil, and seeing the number of stalkers he had, I figured it was blink stalkers.
Ok I need some professional opinion here. Could I have engaged (and won) here? I saw him setting up a proxy pylon at my gold, and I was hesitant whether to engage because he was hovering around the rocks (read: choke)
28 lings 9 roaches vs 13 (blink)stalkers 4 zealots?
In MY opinion, on hindsight, I think i SHOULD have won this fight.. but my mistake was waiting and letting him warp in another round of stalkers.
I don't think roach/ling quite cuts it against a sizeable blink stalker army like this - probably need hydras for more DPS :S
No, don't say infestors. It hits way too early for infestors.
He kept reinforcing and I had to GG out.
I think roach/ling holds an early blink stalker push (e.g. just when blink is done) but if he masses more than 10 stalkers you're gonna need some spine/hydra/transfuse(?!) support. I think. Don't trust me, I'm only a diamond aspiring to be masters.
2) vs Rain (Zerg) on Shakuras Plateau
ZvZ is really my pet match up, I kinda know it pretty well and know where I went wrong every game (when i lose). I opened 15 hatch this game, and he TRIED to but my scouting drone blocked it :) So he had to go pool first.
It's very important to have this OL there, as first it lets you know when he expands, and second and probably more importantly, you know what is coming at you.
When I open with my 15 hatch build, I find it ESSENTIAL to know what he is going for. I basically count the lings coming out.
2 lings? normal scouting lings
4 lings? not to worry, normal scouting lings
6 lings? That's a little too many. Keep watching ramp.
8 lings and up ? It's some ling/bling nonsense or mass speedlings+1 or SOMEthing. Get. Banelings. Nest.
Ok maybe I need to put up my BO for this to make sense:
15 hatch
15 pool
17 gas
17 OL
4 lings when pool done, and Queen, then Roach Warren
20 OL
Pump roaches when OL is done.
This build more or less holds a standard pool opener and you just have to block your ramp with roaches and you're safe against a ling/bling attack. However, I do get a Baneling nest if I see too many lings coming, because he can just surround my expo, kill it, and expand himself while he transits to roaches. really annoying.
(if i push out he runs by and kills drones, etc. Need banelings)
And indeed, he was going for ling/bling:
However with his lings attacking my hatch this whole time, he did manage to kill it (just barely! with one ling! omg) But he basically traded like 8 blings and 10 lings for one hatchery. Do the math, it's not worth it at all.
And of course I counter-attacked immediately, with my 7 or so roaches, and i rallied lings as well to morph into blings. Roaches alone don't quite cut it against large numbers of lings, especially if they get a surround, so you need some blings.
3) vs Damosc (Protoss) on XNC
I must apologize to this guy here, if he even reads the forums. If you know him you can tell him crAzerk apologizes (again). Well he asked 'can i pause for 1 sec' at the start.. and being in the bad mood I was (10% WR the previous day remember) I said no and unpaused immediately.
In fact this was the same treatment that some Masters players from nGen or aLt or something gave me too.
I did apologize to him after the game so and he said np so... yea.
So I opened 14 gas/14pool into 21 hatch again, and gas steal again, amidst his smack talk ("I will enjoy beating you then")
And he went for... 5 gate -_-
AND...
.
.
So I pulled 6 drones and lings were on the way out, with roaches too.
And I realized later on he also warped in 2 more sentries.. bad bad. If you're doing some 4gate rush like that, warp in zealots/stalkers. You probably want at most 1 sentry to FF the ramp, but you need all zealots/stalkers, according to what units the Zerg has.
After I held this off, I half-expected him to GG out. But I guess after my BM at the start he wanted to beat me badly, so he stayed on, and transitioned to blink stalkers.
Learning from the previous game, I got a quick Hydra Den out (I didn't scout his TC, but if he was staying on one base, hydras would beat anything he sends at me (colussus won't be so fast) ) and I was expecting blink stalkers because he had alot of stalkers.
I -kinda- knew I would be good to handle it once Hydras were out, so I kept dancing with him with my roach army
And I made a stupid mistake of not putting drones on my 3rd gas, so I couldn't really fund hydras :S I ended up spamming whatever buttons I could getting a mix of roach/hydra/lings.
He had some pretty decent blink micro though, so I was barely holding on :
And after I cleaned it out, he GGed out
4) vs skywall (Protoss) on Shattered Temple
Cross spawn, and I wanted to go hatch first, but I saw his probe almost reaching my base so I had to go the fast speed build again.
My drone spotted a FORGE first (on the high ground too! I wonder why.. )
After seeing the forge, I quickly moved my 2nd OL back towards my expo ( I was sending it to his cliff) because he may cannon me.
I immediately pulled 4 more drones (with this scouting drone that was returning) to handle it, with 1 drone on his probe and the other 4 hitting the pylon. And I've no idea why but he put down a 2nd pylon (prolly to block my expo?) and ran his probe away without trying any cannons.
The run-by didn't really work well because of his 3 cannons, i was left with 6-7 lings from about 12 lings. Still killed about 6 probes though, and probably put him on his toes abit.
Now, when a Protoss fast expands, I know there are 2 routes to take -
1) Get an early 3rd, because Zerg needs to stay one base ahead
2) All-in with a roach bust or nydus.
I'm not very comfortable with playing with early 3rd because I'm not familiar with how hard I am supposed to drone, and because of his cannon wall in, I decided to go for a nydus.
Unfortunately for me, he had a pylon at his cliff and the moment I put the nydus down I saw it and I thought I had failed.
However, he hesitated before pulling his probes:
 |
| Tactical mistake that cost me the game here. I did not engage here. |
28 lings 9 roaches vs 13 (blink)stalkers 4 zealots?
In MY opinion, on hindsight, I think i SHOULD have won this fight.. but my mistake was waiting and letting him warp in another round of stalkers.
 |
| Excellent blink micro. Look at all the red hp stalkers at the back! |
No, don't say infestors. It hits way too early for infestors.
He kept reinforcing and I had to GG out.
I think roach/ling holds an early blink stalker push (e.g. just when blink is done) but if he masses more than 10 stalkers you're gonna need some spine/hydra/transfuse(?!) support. I think. Don't trust me, I'm only a diamond aspiring to be masters.
2) vs Rain (Zerg) on Shakuras Plateau
ZvZ is really my pet match up, I kinda know it pretty well and know where I went wrong every game (when i lose). I opened 15 hatch this game, and he TRIED to but my scouting drone blocked it :) So he had to go pool first.
 |
| Pro tip - In ZvZ, leave your first OL in this position - watching the expo and the ramp You may even want to leave the OL watching his Hatchery just when his pool finishes, to know how many larva he saved up for lings |
When I open with my 15 hatch build, I find it ESSENTIAL to know what he is going for. I basically count the lings coming out.
2 lings? normal scouting lings
4 lings? not to worry, normal scouting lings
6 lings? That's a little too many. Keep watching ramp.
8 lings and up ? It's some ling/bling nonsense or mass speedlings+1 or SOMEthing. Get. Banelings. Nest.
Ok maybe I need to put up my BO for this to make sense:
15 hatch
15 pool
17 gas
17 OL
4 lings when pool done, and Queen, then Roach Warren
20 OL
Pump roaches when OL is done.
This build more or less holds a standard pool opener and you just have to block your ramp with roaches and you're safe against a ling/bling attack. However, I do get a Baneling nest if I see too many lings coming, because he can just surround my expo, kill it, and expand himself while he transits to roaches. really annoying.
(if i push out he runs by and kills drones, etc. Need banelings)
 |
| Alternative wall, instead of fully blocking your ramp. This allows me to swing over to defend the expo hatch if he tries to attack it, and swing back easily to block the ramp. I kept the lings at the top because I was going to morph them into banelings |
 |
| Yes yes blow up your blings on my roaches no problem. |
And of course I counter-attacked immediately, with my 7 or so roaches, and i rallied lings as well to morph into blings. Roaches alone don't quite cut it against large numbers of lings, especially if they get a surround, so you need some blings.
 |
| My blings killed ALOT of his lings/blings. GG |
3) vs Damosc (Protoss) on XNC
I must apologize to this guy here, if he even reads the forums. If you know him you can tell him crAzerk apologizes (again). Well he asked 'can i pause for 1 sec' at the start.. and being in the bad mood I was (10% WR the previous day remember) I said no and unpaused immediately.
In fact this was the same treatment that some Masters players from nGen or aLt or something gave me too.
I did apologize to him after the game so and he said np so... yea.
So I opened 14 gas/14pool into 21 hatch again, and gas steal again, amidst his smack talk ("I will enjoy beating you then")
And he went for... 5 gate -_-
AND...
.
.
 |
| Being the pro diamond player i am, I scouted this like, at a perfectly early timing when it was finishing already -_- Not sure if my OL was there the whole time.. let's just pretend it was flying there yea. |
 |
| His bad decision here - Why would you warp in 2 sentries 2 lots? Just warp in 4 zealots! |
After I held this off, I half-expected him to GG out. But I guess after my BM at the start he wanted to beat me badly, so he stayed on, and transitioned to blink stalkers.
Learning from the previous game, I got a quick Hydra Den out (I didn't scout his TC, but if he was staying on one base, hydras would beat anything he sends at me (colussus won't be so fast) ) and I was expecting blink stalkers because he had alot of stalkers.
I -kinda- knew I would be good to handle it once Hydras were out, so I kept dancing with him with my roach army
 |
| Lucky surround! Hydras were popping from the main and expo lol. And that spore crawler was in case of DTs. |
He had some pretty decent blink micro though, so I was barely holding on :
 |
| Wtf so many stalkers |
 |
| Lucky for me, with my lings tanking the stalker's shots, and my hydra's awesome DPS, I fended off his blink stalker army |
And after I cleaned it out, he GGed out
 |
| Still nice enough to say 'gg wp'! Because he was sucha nice person I felt bad and apologized after the game. If he had said something like 'you despicable rat your family is going to burn' and left the game I would have just ignored him and reported him to blizzard for abuse or something |
4) vs skywall (Protoss) on Shattered Temple
Cross spawn, and I wanted to go hatch first, but I saw his probe almost reaching my base so I had to go the fast speed build again.
My drone spotted a FORGE first (on the high ground too! I wonder why.. )
After seeing the forge, I quickly moved my 2nd OL back towards my expo ( I was sending it to his cliff) because he may cannon me.
 |
| Good call, he WAS trying to cannon. |
 |
| I saw his retarded 'wall-in' and decided to try a zergling runby. I've no idea why he didn't get the forge on the low ground if he already planned on a fast expand himself. |
Now, when a Protoss fast expands, I know there are 2 routes to take -
1) Get an early 3rd, because Zerg needs to stay one base ahead
2) All-in with a roach bust or nydus.
I'm not very comfortable with playing with early 3rd because I'm not familiar with how hard I am supposed to drone, and because of his cannon wall in, I decided to go for a nydus.
Unfortunately for me, he had a pylon at his cliff and the moment I put the nydus down I saw it and I thought I had failed.
However, he hesitated before pulling his probes:
 |
| Nydus at half hp... |
 |
| TOO LATE! woot roaches popped. And I think I was spamming 'D' on the nydus so it didn't have time to do its cool animation where the worm comes out and makes a loud WOOORRAAARHHH sound |
Yea so he did manage to kill that nydus but only after I had got all my roaches out with 8 speedlings.
So I just put another nydus down lol and cleared out his army as he tried to dance towards his expo to buy time to warp in more stalkers
 |
| I kept streaming lings and roaches, and I took out both pylons powering his 4gates, and he tapped out immediately when this happened |
GG!
5) vs KKC (Zerg) on XNC
Hmm, no Terran love this morning. So yea, I went 15 hatch and he went pool first... into hatchery.
Now I'm not 100% sure about this, but to me whenever the opponent does this (pool into hatch immediately) it's an instant loss. (Or I'll be very confident of winning)
If Zerg goes pool first, he need to keep some kind of contain/pressure and even snipe the expo if possible without losing too much.. not go expo himself. On bigger maps this may work, but not for smaller maps or close spawns in my opinion.
 |
| As mentioned before, this OL placement is crucial. This helped me spot the expo. |
Anyway, I saw alot of lings coming out so I got a baneling nest after my initial roaches.
Now once you have banelings, you HAVE to push immediately (if you were pumping units like me) The reasoning is simple - If he is droning up this time instead of making units, you have a small window before his econ kicks in. Indeed, he had 8 drones more than me. That's why I had to hit immediately.
If he is making units, his roach warren will be slower than you if he committed to so many lings (If you don't see so many lings don't get a bling nest! If he hides his units you need to send a pair of lings up his ramp to check what he has) and so you will have more roaches.
So more roaches, + blings to counter lings, it's a clear win, if you hit within that window.
 |
| In fact, he had 2 supply more than me lol. But as you can see, my army is way superior to his. |
Long story short, my blings owned his lings, I kept rallying roach + lings (not just roaches! You will be gas blocked anyway so send lings! getting the odd bling helps too) and overwhelmed his army.
OH yes one trick I wanted to share with you guys if you didn't already know.
When you are moving out with your roach /bane army, one thing I've seen many zergs like to do if they have invested in a heavy speedling army is to actually do a run-by when you are moving out and go into your mineral line and decimate your drones.
This will actually win it for THEM, because this way you can't reinforce your army, and they WILL be able to get enough roaches/lings even to defend your roach/bane push. (after trading armies) and continue reinforce for themselves.
Thus, I've started doing this:
 |
| My building placement isn't ideal - your pool and RW(or bling nest) shoudl be on the left and right of your hatch respectively to form some sort of walloff into your mineral line. But anyway, throw up a spine in your mineral line (once again, mine isn't ideal, but I was just trying to wall off that side), and leave 3-4 banelings in your base. A 2nd queen helps too, to tank baneling splash and draw fire. |
This more or less nullifies any stupid speedling runby into your mineral line.
What if he morphs alot of banelings too? Then start rallying your units INTO your base, not to your main army. Your main army should be able to clean out his base (he wont have enough to produce BOTH roaches and banelings) and you just have to do some multitasking to get a simple win.
Good morning! 4 wins out of 5 games, even if they were all 'Even' matchups. Oh well. Going out for lunch with girlfriend now, hope to play more games later! If not this is it! haha.
~~~
6) vs Diphoria (Terran) on Typhon Peaks
Whee first Terran matchup of the day! I don't know why but nowadays I have a pretty good feeling in my ZvTs, probably because I'm winning LOL. Haven't been facing the REALLY good terrans.. guess 'really good' terrans will have too high MMRs to face me.
 |
| Hi Mr Terran what's up? |
I opened my Spanishiwa opening as usual, and scouted a 2 rax and laughed.
I think I mentioned before how I enjoy playing against 2 rax nowadays. They usually do nothing much, given decent micro from the Zerg's part. And they also open the Terran up for a eco Baneling bust if they expand after that.
Anyway, I actually left my scouting Drone at the Watchtower so I could see what was coming.
 |
| 4 SCVs and 2 marines |
And I must say I am VERY pleased with how I responded. I already had a precautionary spine going up, my queen was coming up at the expo, so I made 6 lings. And I remember clearly I actually told myself 'ok stop now! that's enough!'
Why am I so pleased? Because players commonly overreact when they see such pressure coming, and make like 10-12 lings or something when they don't really need so many. Myself included. Thus being able to override that 'panic' impulse is good!
 |
| Virtually perfect micro |
In a bunker rush situation, your priorities are as such:
1) SCV(s) building bunkers
1) Marines
2) other SCVs
Note that SCV on bunkers and Marines are equally important, so you should probably put something on the SCV on the bunker and something on the marines if you can surround them. Even if you can't, just chasing them with drones/lings will kill them eventually, they can't scoot and shoot forever.
And as you see in the above screenshot, I microed 2 lings + queen to snipe the SCV on the bunker, and you can note that the only units damaged are the marines! (well fine SCV in yellow but I was FFing the marines)
So pleased :D
Do understand I dont do this all the time that's why I'm happy with myself haha don't flameee :(
After holding off the bunker rush, I droned up, but he tried to do some sneaky marine action:
 |
| He hugged the edge and tried to sneak around my creep. |
It -kind of- worked because I only spotted him when he hit the back of my expo.
Unfortunately for him, he only killed 2 drones before I got a ling/drones surround and with my queen I was able to clear his pack of 6-7 marines easily. Not worth it for him!
 |
| Good surround with drones! |
At this point I was feeling REALLY confident, seeing how he threw away so much resources at the start, so I decided to go for an eco baneling bust. I got the 2 gases in my base much earlier than the Spanishiwa build dictates, and quickly got Zergling Speed and a Baneling Nest.
After making another round of drones so my expo was moderately saturated (35 drones total), I pumped pure lings and rallied closer to his base.
 |
| Zerg Deathball? LOL. |
 |
| BOOMZ He had about 2-3 hellions, 8 marines (that were well spread out too) but my army was just too big, the lings just swarmed around the marines and banelings ran in and blew up. |
Ran up his base and killed some popping hellions and marines, and blew up the rest of my banelings in his SCVs before he GGed.
He didn't have much units because it seemed like he was trying to do too much at once - He expanded, was teching to blue flame, and got a viking all at the same time.
Anyway, after this game, my match history looked like this:
Hahaha. 5 wins after 5 loss streak. My next match is probably gonna be a slightlyfavored/favored matchup, so hope I can win again.
Wednesday 18 May 2011
The Magic Intercom
My office's entrance is a pair of wooden doors that are unlocked by tapping your card on the scanner next to it.
Because I am a part time staff, I do not have the card, so I was told to press the Intercom button next to it.
Now, I wasn't told what to say when I pressed the Intercom.
And the thing is, anyone in the company can answer the Intercom. Even I know how to pick up the phone and let the person in when the Intercom rings. However, I don't think anyone actually knows exactly WHAT to say when you pick up the Intercom.
So yesterday morning I pressed the button and after like 10 seconds of fumbling noises, me saying 'Hello, I'm Alan' to seemingly noone, the door suddenly unlocked, so I entered.
Today, after I pressed the button for 3 times, someone finally picked up, but said something unintelligible. It did not sound like "Hello", "Good Morning", or "Who is this?".
The last response is probably the most appropriate response, since you want to know who the hell is at the door before letting them in right? However, I have a feeling most staff here don't really know EVERYONE in the company, so they won't know who to let in either. (They definitely won't know who I am since I"m only a temp)
I wonder what I should say into the intercom next time.
Maybe I'll try 'Open Sesame'.
Because I am a part time staff, I do not have the card, so I was told to press the Intercom button next to it.
Now, I wasn't told what to say when I pressed the Intercom.
And the thing is, anyone in the company can answer the Intercom. Even I know how to pick up the phone and let the person in when the Intercom rings. However, I don't think anyone actually knows exactly WHAT to say when you pick up the Intercom.
So yesterday morning I pressed the button and after like 10 seconds of fumbling noises, me saying 'Hello, I'm Alan' to seemingly noone, the door suddenly unlocked, so I entered.
Today, after I pressed the button for 3 times, someone finally picked up, but said something unintelligible. It did not sound like "Hello", "Good Morning", or "Who is this?".
The last response is probably the most appropriate response, since you want to know who the hell is at the door before letting them in right? However, I have a feeling most staff here don't really know EVERYONE in the company, so they won't know who to let in either. (They definitely won't know who I am since I"m only a temp)
I wonder what I should say into the intercom next time.
Maybe I'll try 'Open Sesame'.
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Update
Hello my dear friends who read my blog. I haven't been providing real-life updates in a while, so here I go! I'll do it in point form so it's easier to read k!
1) I have just started work at Globalsign.in !
It's a very small company that provides web-based services for companies and the such. My role is there is admin-based and I basically check the contact details of all the major companies by calling them up and verifying them. So I talk to alot of CEOs and Directors! haha.
Their website here
The office is a little shophouse 5 mins from Somerset MRT, and I'm paid $7.50/h. Yupyup answered all your questions already right haha.
My lunch time is 1-2PM, so if you want to ask me for lunch can meet at that time! And I end work at 6pm, so ditto for dinner.
2) Writing career!
Ok the title is overstating it, but if you know me well, you will know that I have 2 passions in life-
One is gaming, another is writing.
And as for now the game of the moment is Starcraft 2, which I've played since it was released last year in.. August? July? Can't remember.
So more accurately put, my passions are Starcraft 2 (SC2) and writing.
And recently, I have found a way to combine both!
Out of randomness and boredom, I decided to do a writeup on my own games and make a blog entry out of it, and also posted it over at this community website SC2SEA, which is the regional website for SC2.
I followed up with a 2nd and 3rd entry, publishing all of them there, and it was surprisingly very well-received by the people there.... And I offered my 'services' to them, and I was actually asked to join them as a writer! wahaha. It's not paid la, but still.
I am crazerk/atqhteo yes :)
And there were even people who sent me Private Messages to ask me to cover certain tournaments for them.
And this includes some people from Flash E-sports who asked me to write for them! They are like a start-up website/company that is looking to promote e-sports in the region.
So to summarize my new writing career:
I'll be writing a weekly column 'Road to Masters' which I'll post on SC2SEA (already have 2 week's worth of material, gonna stack them up so can slack haha)
I'll be writing articles periodically for Flash E-Sports.
I'll be writing tournament recaps occasionally whenever I'm asked.
All on Starcraft 2!! Yay!
I wonder if this kind of thing can put in resume one anot HAHA. Just try luh no harm.
3) RESULTS IN TWO WEEKS
Yes, NUS is releasing our exam results in 2 weeks time.. AHHHH
Am I nervous? Not really. I have more or less accepted the fact that I'll be doing worse than last sem.. it's just a matter of how much worse.
My MAIN concern is this module SSB2216 - Employee Management... I just REALLY REALLY hope I pass it. So that I can S/U it. Yes, I'm worried I may fail it. Of course, the miracle would be I get a B for it, then I won't even S/U it. If it's B- and below, I hope I get a C, so I wont feel that I wasted my S/U just for a 'B-'.
(I'm going to S/U B- too because I want to keep my CAP as high as possible for exchange)
4) DAMN UNFIT
Ok I had plans to exercise since Sunday and every single day I keep pushing it off. Tomorrow I won't be running for sure because I'm meeting the gf... so means earliest I'll run is Thursday -_- ZzzZzz.
Why do I NEED to run? Because my X chromosome decided to pair up with a Y chromosome and make me a boy, and I had to complete NS, and after that I have to pass IPPT every single year if not I'll have to go for Remedial Training. -_-
And my worst station is the 2.4KM run.. seriously it's a retarded station it's just trying to burst your lungs every time to just pass.
I'm just aiming to pass, and I can only do 6 pullups anyway so... I NEED TO TRAIN MY RUNNING.
5) I don't really have a #5, but lists always have 5 things in them don't they. Ok I have a number 5 - Thanks for reading and keep coming back k! Actually don't need just follow me on Twitter and I'll update you when I make a new post! KTNXBAI!
1) I have just started work at Globalsign.in !
It's a very small company that provides web-based services for companies and the such. My role is there is admin-based and I basically check the contact details of all the major companies by calling them up and verifying them. So I talk to alot of CEOs and Directors! haha.
Their website here
The office is a little shophouse 5 mins from Somerset MRT, and I'm paid $7.50/h. Yupyup answered all your questions already right haha.
My lunch time is 1-2PM, so if you want to ask me for lunch can meet at that time! And I end work at 6pm, so ditto for dinner.
2) Writing career!
Ok the title is overstating it, but if you know me well, you will know that I have 2 passions in life-
One is gaming, another is writing.
And as for now the game of the moment is Starcraft 2, which I've played since it was released last year in.. August? July? Can't remember.
So more accurately put, my passions are Starcraft 2 (SC2) and writing.
And recently, I have found a way to combine both!
Out of randomness and boredom, I decided to do a writeup on my own games and make a blog entry out of it, and also posted it over at this community website SC2SEA, which is the regional website for SC2.
I followed up with a 2nd and 3rd entry, publishing all of them there, and it was surprisingly very well-received by the people there.... And I offered my 'services' to them, and I was actually asked to join them as a writer! wahaha. It's not paid la, but still.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
And there were even people who sent me Private Messages to ask me to cover certain tournaments for them.
And this includes some people from Flash E-sports who asked me to write for them! They are like a start-up website/company that is looking to promote e-sports in the region.
 |
| Look it's me! Haha supposed to put a profile picture but i lazy to put . Wait till they ask me to put again |
So to summarize my new writing career:
I'll be writing a weekly column 'Road to Masters' which I'll post on SC2SEA (already have 2 week's worth of material, gonna stack them up so can slack haha)
I'll be writing articles periodically for Flash E-Sports.
I'll be writing tournament recaps occasionally whenever I'm asked.
All on Starcraft 2!! Yay!
I wonder if this kind of thing can put in resume one anot HAHA. Just try luh no harm.
3) RESULTS IN TWO WEEKS
Yes, NUS is releasing our exam results in 2 weeks time.. AHHHH
Am I nervous? Not really. I have more or less accepted the fact that I'll be doing worse than last sem.. it's just a matter of how much worse.
My MAIN concern is this module SSB2216 - Employee Management... I just REALLY REALLY hope I pass it. So that I can S/U it. Yes, I'm worried I may fail it. Of course, the miracle would be I get a B for it, then I won't even S/U it. If it's B- and below, I hope I get a C, so I wont feel that I wasted my S/U just for a 'B-'.
(I'm going to S/U B- too because I want to keep my CAP as high as possible for exchange)
4) DAMN UNFIT
Ok I had plans to exercise since Sunday and every single day I keep pushing it off. Tomorrow I won't be running for sure because I'm meeting the gf... so means earliest I'll run is Thursday -_- ZzzZzz.
Why do I NEED to run? Because my X chromosome decided to pair up with a Y chromosome and make me a boy, and I had to complete NS, and after that I have to pass IPPT every single year if not I'll have to go for Remedial Training. -_-
And my worst station is the 2.4KM run.. seriously it's a retarded station it's just trying to burst your lungs every time to just pass.
I'm just aiming to pass, and I can only do 6 pullups anyway so... I NEED TO TRAIN MY RUNNING.
5) I don't really have a #5, but lists always have 5 things in them don't they. Ok I have a number 5 - Thanks for reading and keep coming back k! Actually don't need just follow me on Twitter and I'll update you when I make a new post! KTNXBAI!
Tuesday 10 May 2011
Road to Masters (2)
Day 2 of my push to Masters league!
And this was when Patch 1.3 just came out! With the infestor speed nerf :( bleah. And the Warp Gate nerf, which means more 2 gate shenanigans as you'll see later on.
1) vs Sidoney (Terran) on Typhon Peaks
This game epitomizes what Benji was complaining about in his blog post.
I opened my usual Spanishiwa style, and he walled off before I could get my drone into his base. (it's a big map -_- )
Tried to fly my OL in at 5min+ to get an idea of what he was doing, but he denied it with his small pack of marines.
So I was playing completely in the dark. Wtf is he doing? Hellion harass? Mass thor? banshees? mass infantry?
I tried to go my safest build, getting 3-4 spines and a few more queens in case of some early push, and once I hit 40 or so food I got my gas up and teched to lair as normal
My lings poked at his ramp a few times, only to see the barracks-2depot wall off, nothing much to be read from there.
Then he actually pushed out with a small pack of marines, like 6-8 to clear my ling at the watchtower and outside his base. Nothing out of the ordinary, just good Terran play.
It was only until he hit my creep before I knew what it was:
OMGWTF . Marine SCV ALL IN on 4 barracks -_- Well it wasn't really all-in because he still had quite a decent number of SCVs back in base mining. And if you see my baneling nest wasn't even half done, so I knew I was majorly screwed.
I knew the expo was gone so I pulled my lings and queens back into my main, waiting on my Baneling's nest.
However, being the great diamond league cheeser he was, he knew this trick (probably after previous cheesing experiences) and ran up my ramp to hunt down my banelings.
Sigh.
Looking back, I don't think I would have been able to hold it, with the build I went. The gas just comes in too late for banelings to come out in time... the thing is, how do I even scout it? Against any other kind of harass I'd have been fine - hellion marine.. hellions.. just ramp block and use spines/queens. But marine/scv all in seems to be a weakness of this build, especially when it hits in that small window before you get banelings out.
And you might say, 'oh, throw down more spines!' but the problem is, the SCVs will tank the damage. And the marines will go to work on my spines and queens so... :(
And this is assuming I DO manage to scout it which as mentioned before.. I did what I could to scout but couldn't get a whiff of what was coming zzz.
2) vs MOFFy (Protoss) on Metalopolis
Close spawn, meaning his probe got over waaay early. With some fancy dancing on my expo spot he managed to block it till he could afford a pylon block. I had to go pool first then, and got my hatchery as soon as he cancelled his pylon and i killed his probe.
He followed up with a 2 gate, 3 stalker+zealot harass (Stalkers chronoboosted out) , something I believe many Toss will start using after the recent patch.
He transited into a 4gate from this harass, but with mass queens, spines, and lings, I managed to hold it off.
He backed out and transited into an expand with +1 attack and blink, while i droned so hard that despite overproducing lings and spines I was still ahead in harvestors. I also snuck a 3rd at the gold on the other side of the map.
I scouted the Twilight Council, but wasn't sure what he was planning to do so I just got a spore at each base + overseer as a precautionary measure for DTs. And being the awesome player he is, he expanded TOWARDS me. That is really freaking annoying.
(More so for Terran since they can just slowpush from their PF there, but toss can similarly cannon push from there and more or less make you feel contained without even doing anything)
I really didn't know what to do. I couldn't engage his army at his 3rd (because I would have to fight on the ramp, and with some nice forcefields like these:
I will basically lose every fight)
I couldn't do a zergling run-by either, because he had cannons at his expo AND his main's mineral line.On hindsight, a nydus MAY have got him stumbling on the back foot, but wouldn't really power me ahead.
So anyway, he teched to colussus and killed me once thermal lance was done.
gg
3) vs xunwuFOM (Protoss) on Shakuras Plateau
Same Spanishiwa opening, and i saw him with 1-2 sentries so I guessed he was going for an expand, so I got an early (hidden) 3rd. (When I say hidden I mean not in a conventional location that he may scout)
Then I tried some baneling/ling nydus action, but he scouted all my attempts :(
You know, I think nydus needs to be buffed. We are spending 100/100 every time we put one down, yet it takes so long to build. Compare it with medivacs/warp prisms which drop instantly. rawr.
I made the tactical mistake here of being pretty much passive while I maxxed out on a roach hydra corruptor army, as he did the same thing as well with gateway + colussus and their favourite - DTs.
PRO TIP - Some time in the mid - late game, you should always put down a spore + 2 spines at EVERY base you have. No excuses. You should be limited by gas anyway, so you should have excess minerals lying around. INVEST in those. No excuses.
Even if he doesn't go multi-base DT harass, it's not that big a loss. As compared to when he DOES, and you have to split your army + overseers up to quickly react and usually you would have lost considerable drones before you clear his DTs.
Yea so basically he did that and stupid me didn't get those spore/spines and he left me scrambling all over. Sigh, how am I going to get into Masters with these stupid little errors.
I also messed up an amazing baneling drop on his mineral line .. you have to see this:
But as you can see, he was already quite far ahead in probes (78>50) after his DT harass.
But yea anyway, even without the hallu colussus he would still have won, his army totally raped mine. Didn't have an overseer nearby too -_- And his econ is 34 probes higher so... GG.
4) vs Phoenix (Terran) on Shattered Temple
Some time ago ZvT was my weakest matchup - I had no answer to marine/tanks. Now I think it is ZvP - I have no answer to a good pressuring Toss who gets his 200/200 up quickly and rolls me over.
Anyway, I felt more comfortable vsing a Terran in this game after the 2 bad toss losses.
I opened Spanishiwa build (surprise surprise) and he hid his 2 rax at his cliff which my OL AND my scouting drone spotted anyway (we were close air spawn) so... no idea why he did that.
Oh wow.. I only realized something after watching the replay.. He actually DOUBLE expanded to the 'island' expo ! wtf! Well I had 15 harvestors more than him and never quite lost the harvestor lead but still..
Anyway my OL scouted 3-4 rax so I got some early lings/blings before getting my infestation pit. Was afraid of some kind of early infantry push
Hmm this guy is a Masters Terran and he doesnt constantly make SCVs! So bad.
I followed up with another attack which cleared his expo, but he had a 3rd and 4th CC at the bottom right of the map . I was ahead by 30 harvestors and felt really comfortable, So i just kept expanding and teching to t3
(He had a siege line in his base so I didn't want to throw away too much army in an overanxious bid to end the game)
I did some burrowed infestor harass:
Then he started doing some multi prong medivac drops that really messed up my econ abit, but I had ultras coming out already
Ok at this point I'm not quite sure why I didn't win. 184 to 113 supply, I cleared his 3rd and 4th expo with mass lings, ultras, infestor.
Ok I know why now.
And to make things worse, I had tech switched to Broodlords but forgot to get infestors/blings support, and his mass marines (yes terran can win with just one unit) cleared out my BLs -_-
Yes so despite having like double his harvestors, he was able to overcome my army and i was actually down on supply for the first time in the game!! I was genuinely worried when he pushed towards my base with mass marines + medivacs and I frantically produced infestors and blings
Ok the game dragged on for quite abit because he kept massing marines and 3/3 marines are freaking sick and cost efficient. I eventually managed to win , and the total game length was 40 mins -_-
NOTE TO SELF - Just pump infestors if a terran masses marines next time.
Ok, it's lunch break!
4) vs icantrememberhisnameidontcare (no this wasn't his nick)
... Starcraft crashed within the first 2 minutes of the game. Awesome. Great start after lunch yo.
Great streak today, 1 win out of 5 games.
5) vs LmBenz (Zerg) on Metalopolis
Both of us opened 15 hatch, and i decided to go mass lings /blings to early bum rush him.
Unfortunately he had the same idea (didn't make drones too) and we played speedling/baneling see-who-makes-the-first-mistake game for awhile.
He was no pushover, and none of us made any significant mistakes (like lose a ton of lings to a single baneling)
AND I MADE THE STUPID MISTAKE HERE of not transiting into roach baneling! Which easily beats ling/bling. And... basically he did that. Transition smoothly into roaches while I was still pumping ling/bling
And I made ANOTHER dumb mistake:
And I realized he basically out macroed me. He massed a round of drones and he was 10+ drones ahead of me the whole time. :(
Then I caught up on macro, but his early lead meant he had shit loads of resources saved up. I tried to get infestors a bit too early, and he had a slight upgrade lead on me too. He engaged just before I could get a critical mass of roach/infestor up and he had +2 attack when mine was almost done, and he kept streaming roaches from there and crushed me :(
6) vs Dom (Protoss) on Typhon Peaks
As usual, 13 hatch 15 pool while he rushed DTs! I stole his gas and kept cancelling on it though, so it slowed down his DT rush alot. He expanded while his Dark Shrine was making, and he made the mistake of letting my lings run up his ramp and scouting his shrine.
I responded with an evo chamber with spores and spines... and he actually got an early 3rd!! Ugh.
I went for a baneling double mineral line drop, with the intention of transiting into roach corruptor after that.
But of course, he missed the second one as it always is
Unfortunately, with his THREE nexus pumping out probes, he was STILL ahead even after this drop! Damn.
He got an early 4th too, and was really on top of his probe production >< DAmn.
In our first clash, we were both maxxed out, he had gateway + blink stalkers + colussus + High Templars. Yes, that's what having 4 bases of gas lets you produce
He wisely transitioned into mass immortals, which easily dominated my roaches.
AND the turning point of the game - he used DTs to more or less deny my 4th, and I never got about to establishing it.
I transitioned into broodlords which stopped his push which almost killed me, but my lack of a 4th while he had a 6th (yes he mass expanded and spammed cannons at those bases.. how to break huh) cost me the game ::(
So yea with his DTs denying a 4th, and my 3rd gone.. he could remacro up his mass stalker army which made short work of my broodlords :( GG
6) vs iMed (Zerg) on Typhon Peaks
I opened with 15 hatch and he went pool first into a hatch, with decent pressure from a pack of 15 speedlings or so. Then... he transitioned into roaches and basically pumped roaches while I made roach baneling..
I'm not quite sure what happened this game I think his speedlings made me edgy and I didn't drone up as much as I should have. He made a big bunch of roaches (hidden) and then suddenly moved out. He didn't tech lair while I did, and I guess that's what let him make more roaches?
I'm really not quite sure why i lost. Didn't drone hard at the right time I guess.. :( He hit with more roaches at the small window before I could get units, and while pushing out he massed drones and was 10 drones ahead.
LOST
BAD LOSING STREAK. :( Stopped playing after this... 1 win out of 6 games! :(
And this was when Patch 1.3 just came out! With the infestor speed nerf :( bleah. And the Warp Gate nerf, which means more 2 gate shenanigans as you'll see later on.
1) vs Sidoney (Terran) on Typhon Peaks
This game epitomizes what Benji was complaining about in his blog post.
I opened my usual Spanishiwa style, and he walled off before I could get my drone into his base. (it's a big map -_- )
Tried to fly my OL in at 5min+ to get an idea of what he was doing, but he denied it with his small pack of marines.
So I was playing completely in the dark. Wtf is he doing? Hellion harass? Mass thor? banshees? mass infantry?
I tried to go my safest build, getting 3-4 spines and a few more queens in case of some early push, and once I hit 40 or so food I got my gas up and teched to lair as normal
My lings poked at his ramp a few times, only to see the barracks-2depot wall off, nothing much to be read from there.
 |
| Oh Terran oh Terran, thou hath so many possible tech routes that this tells nothing at all. |
Then he actually pushed out with a small pack of marines, like 6-8 to clear my ling at the watchtower and outside his base. Nothing out of the ordinary, just good Terran play.
It was only until he hit my creep before I knew what it was:
 |
| The Terran march of death |
 |
| I did what I could, trying to transfuse the spines and getting lings to wrap around his marines. I underestimated the number of marines he had though, it wouldn't work. |
However, being the great diamond league cheeser he was, he knew this trick (probably after previous cheesing experiences) and ran up my ramp to hunt down my banelings.
 |
| And even proceeded to spread his marines out to taunt me as my banelings were morphing in -_- |
Looking back, I don't think I would have been able to hold it, with the build I went. The gas just comes in too late for banelings to come out in time... the thing is, how do I even scout it? Against any other kind of harass I'd have been fine - hellion marine.. hellions.. just ramp block and use spines/queens. But marine/scv all in seems to be a weakness of this build, especially when it hits in that small window before you get banelings out.
And you might say, 'oh, throw down more spines!' but the problem is, the SCVs will tank the damage. And the marines will go to work on my spines and queens so... :(
And this is assuming I DO manage to scout it which as mentioned before.. I did what I could to scout but couldn't get a whiff of what was coming zzz.
2) vs MOFFy (Protoss) on Metalopolis
Close spawn, meaning his probe got over waaay early. With some fancy dancing on my expo spot he managed to block it till he could afford a pylon block. I had to go pool first then, and got my hatchery as soon as he cancelled his pylon and i killed his probe.
He followed up with a 2 gate, 3 stalker+zealot harass (Stalkers chronoboosted out) , something I believe many Toss will start using after the recent patch.
 |
| Stalkers scooting around to the back to kill my drones |
 |
| The epitome of OVERREACTING. Note to self - you do not need 32 lings , 3 queens and 5 spines to hold off a 4gate. |
I scouted the Twilight Council, but wasn't sure what he was planning to do so I just got a spore at each base + overseer as a precautionary measure for DTs. And being the awesome player he is, he expanded TOWARDS me. That is really freaking annoying.
(More so for Terran since they can just slowpush from their PF there, but toss can similarly cannon push from there and more or less make you feel contained without even doing anything)
I really didn't know what to do. I couldn't engage his army at his 3rd (because I would have to fight on the ramp, and with some nice forcefields like these:
I couldn't do a zergling run-by either, because he had cannons at his expo AND his main's mineral line.On hindsight, a nydus MAY have got him stumbling on the back foot, but wouldn't really power me ahead.
So anyway, he teched to colussus and killed me once thermal lance was done.
 |
| Colussus + mass blink stalkers = :( |
3) vs xunwuFOM (Protoss) on Shakuras Plateau
Same Spanishiwa opening, and i saw him with 1-2 sentries so I guessed he was going for an expand, so I got an early (hidden) 3rd. (When I say hidden I mean not in a conventional location that he may scout)
Then I tried some baneling/ling nydus action, but he scouted all my attempts :(
 |
| bleah |
I made the tactical mistake here of being pretty much passive while I maxxed out on a roach hydra corruptor army, as he did the same thing as well with gateway + colussus and their favourite - DTs.
PRO TIP - Some time in the mid - late game, you should always put down a spore + 2 spines at EVERY base you have. No excuses. You should be limited by gas anyway, so you should have excess minerals lying around. INVEST in those. No excuses.
Even if he doesn't go multi-base DT harass, it's not that big a loss. As compared to when he DOES, and you have to split your army + overseers up to quickly react and usually you would have lost considerable drones before you clear his DTs.
Yea so basically he did that and stupid me didn't get those spore/spines and he left me scrambling all over. Sigh, how am I going to get into Masters with these stupid little errors.
 |
| DTs are devastating even if your opponent is stupid like this and goes for your spine crawlers instead of your drones |
I also messed up an amazing baneling drop on his mineral line .. you have to see this:
 |
| WHATTT. That's like 15 probes needing just one more hit. What happened was the stalker messed up the baneling AI and TWO banelings blew up on the stalker instead of the probes. Sigh. |
Yea but basically the main error was not exchanging armies with him abit, despite having slightly better econ. I denied his 3rd for awhile with a pack of lings, but when he pushed out with his big toss ball of gateway + colussus + DTs + HALLUCINATED COLUSSUS..... it was GG.
He was at 200/200 too -_-
 |
| Hi I have 10 colussus not 5. I'm going to decimate your army. |
Like seriously? How imba is that? Hallucinating colussus = your corruptors are wasting time focus-firing colussus as you've no idea which is real. How do you beat this?
But yea anyway, even without the hallu colussus he would still have won, his army totally raped mine. Didn't have an overseer nearby too -_- And his econ is 34 probes higher so... GG.
4) vs Phoenix (Terran) on Shattered Temple
Some time ago ZvT was my weakest matchup - I had no answer to marine/tanks. Now I think it is ZvP - I have no answer to a good pressuring Toss who gets his 200/200 up quickly and rolls me over.
Anyway, I felt more comfortable vsing a Terran in this game after the 2 bad toss losses.
I opened Spanishiwa build (surprise surprise) and he hid his 2 rax at his cliff which my OL AND my scouting drone spotted anyway (we were close air spawn) so... no idea why he did that.
Oh wow.. I only realized something after watching the replay.. He actually DOUBLE expanded to the 'island' expo ! wtf! Well I had 15 harvestors more than him and never quite lost the harvestor lead but still..
Anyway my OL scouted 3-4 rax so I got some early lings/blings before getting my infestation pit. Was afraid of some kind of early infantry push
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| Shifting spines to a forward defensive position to defend my gold expo too. |
Hmm this guy is a Masters Terran and he doesnt constantly make SCVs! So bad.
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| I cleared out his pack of marines at the XN Watchtower, so decided to push in with my bling/slings army which I kinda overproduced. Crushed his defenses, and managed to kill quite a handful of SCVs before he cleaned out my forces. |
(He had a siege line in his base so I didn't want to throw away too much army in an overanxious bid to end the game)
I did some burrowed infestor harass:
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| Fungal + 3 Infested Terran ftw |
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| If I had unlimited gas, I would just mass infestors +ultras. That's all you need - fungal, Neural, ultra swarmmm. |
Ok at this point I'm not quite sure why I didn't win. 184 to 113 supply, I cleared his 3rd and 4th expo with mass lings, ultras, infestor.
Ok I know why now.
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| I kept trying to brute force up his ramp, with fungal + ultralisks. However, with 192387 medivacs healing up the mairnes and marines being constantly streamed out of his barracks (11 at a time) with 3/3 upgrades.. I lost waaay more than I should have. |
And to make things worse, I had tech switched to Broodlords but forgot to get infestors/blings support, and his mass marines (yes terran can win with just one unit) cleared out my BLs -_-
Yes so despite having like double his harvestors, he was able to overcome my army and i was actually down on supply for the first time in the game!! I was genuinely worried when he pushed towards my base with mass marines + medivacs and I frantically produced infestors and blings
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| Picture perfect. BANELINGS BANELINGS BANELINGS OOHHH |
Ok, it's lunch break!
4) vs icantrememberhisnameidontcare (no this wasn't his nick)
... Starcraft crashed within the first 2 minutes of the game. Awesome. Great start after lunch yo.
Great streak today, 1 win out of 5 games.
5) vs LmBenz (Zerg) on Metalopolis
Both of us opened 15 hatch, and i decided to go mass lings /blings to early bum rush him.
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| speedling warz! |
He was no pushover, and none of us made any significant mistakes (like lose a ton of lings to a single baneling)
AND I MADE THE STUPID MISTAKE HERE of not transiting into roach baneling! Which easily beats ling/bling. And... basically he did that. Transition smoothly into roaches while I was still pumping ling/bling
And I made ANOTHER dumb mistake:
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| Blew up about 3-4 banelings on the queen -_- While microing my lings to run by. He had like 7-8 drones at the expo, if I had got there would hae been able to kill like at least 5-6 of them? |
And I realized he basically out macroed me. He massed a round of drones and he was 10+ drones ahead of me the whole time. :(
Then I caught up on macro, but his early lead meant he had shit loads of resources saved up. I tried to get infestors a bit too early, and he had a slight upgrade lead on me too. He engaged just before I could get a critical mass of roach/infestor up and he had +2 attack when mine was almost done, and he kept streaming roaches from there and crushed me :(
6) vs Dom (Protoss) on Typhon Peaks
As usual, 13 hatch 15 pool while he rushed DTs! I stole his gas and kept cancelling on it though, so it slowed down his DT rush alot. He expanded while his Dark Shrine was making, and he made the mistake of letting my lings run up his ramp and scouting his shrine.
I responded with an evo chamber with spores and spines... and he actually got an early 3rd!! Ugh.
I went for a baneling double mineral line drop, with the intention of transiting into roach corruptor after that.
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| Probes running from one OL drop! |
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| BOOM |
He got an early 4th too, and was really on top of his probe production >< DAmn.
In our first clash, we were both maxxed out, he had gateway + blink stalkers + colussus + High Templars. Yes, that's what having 4 bases of gas lets you produce
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| Mass corruptors made short work of his colussus, but my ground army wasn't enough, but i kept rallying roaches so he had to back |
AND the turning point of the game - he used DTs to more or less deny my 4th, and I never got about to establishing it.
I transitioned into broodlords which stopped his push which almost killed me, but my lack of a 4th while he had a 6th (yes he mass expanded and spammed cannons at those bases.. how to break huh) cost me the game ::(
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| Protoss death ball designed to own roaches |
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| He took out my 3rd base before running away from my broodlords! :( |
6) vs iMed (Zerg) on Typhon Peaks
I opened with 15 hatch and he went pool first into a hatch, with decent pressure from a pack of 15 speedlings or so. Then... he transitioned into roaches and basically pumped roaches while I made roach baneling..
I'm not quite sure what happened this game I think his speedlings made me edgy and I didn't drone up as much as I should have. He made a big bunch of roaches (hidden) and then suddenly moved out. He didn't tech lair while I did, and I guess that's what let him make more roaches?
I'm really not quite sure why i lost. Didn't drone hard at the right time I guess.. :( He hit with more roaches at the small window before I could get units, and while pushing out he massed drones and was 10 drones ahead.
LOST
BAD LOSING STREAK. :( Stopped playing after this... 1 win out of 6 games! :(
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