Proud Soldier

Should I be proud of myself?

Not really.

FPVOD's on youtube are so awesome I could learn a lot from looking at them. For instance, I do hotkey my buildings, but still I use the shift+f2 hotkey to take the screen to my buildings and click them individually. I believed it saved me a bit of trouble but now I can see that it's going to be necessary to do it different. Fafner pointed out I didn't use building hotkeys much, it's time to use them. But when I want to clean my base up and build turrets and whathaveyou, I will use the 'shift + f2-f4' keys. Ha! I'm kind of excited now because I know my APM and unit control will be better in the future.

Last week, the day of my birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME [22 years old]), I played one game of starcraft against a 150 APM guy. Of course he beat me but I was a little proud of holding off for so long, 22 minutes. My apm was 100. He seemed to be a player that likes to win economically and did a good job of doing it. Check out the picture, he has quite a few expos while I fail with my push (didn't drop mines or build turret like I should have either).
You can also see me trying to expand on the top right of the map. He handled that with these same units. I couldn't do anything about it. I was heading up shit creek.
The rest of the game he was totally overwhelming with his economic advantage. I tried to drop once or twice but failed. There were good spots to drop and harass his workers but I wasn't that familiar with the map.
Yesterday, I played two games. The first was a complete and total noob, the second had an apm close to mine. Although, strangely my apm for that game was 87 to his 103. I must admit, he had terrible unit control. If he were to use his units correctly and did one big push he would have done much better. And he didn't apply any kind of pressure on me so I was free to do whatever I wanted (I didn't push until a little later). When I finally attacked he responded poorly, very poorly. If you want to see how terrible he did leave a comment for a replay.
You know what, at least I won it. I should be as proud as I can of it. The funny thing is iCCup had some kind of malfunction (all players logged onto iCCup were affected) so my two wins weren't processed. How lame is that? I'm still 1-7. Damn you iCCup. Damn you to hell. Oh wait. It shows on my gaming profile that I've played 8 games, but if you click on match list you see 9 games. Two wins. Strange.

5 More

It was a random time to play Starcraft but I felt an urge to whoop some ass tonight. As of right now I'm pretty heated about all the losses I've picked up on the map Wuthering. It's so embarrassing how easily I've been beaten. But, I did win one of them but he was a complete and total newb. My iCCup record is now 1-6 :-(

First game: I won against the noob zerg pretty easily. He had an APM of 56 so it wasn't any kind of surprise. No real satisfaction from winning. Since I have 900 points I figure I'd ban anyone over 1100. Maybe then I'd have easier opponents.

Second game: My protoss opponent had an APM of 186. Mine was 103. As I tried to expo he sent two dark temps into my base. I responded by panicking with my one vulture. When temps surprise you in such a way it's pretty much gg. See the two DTs?

Third game: By far the most embarrasing game yet. The protoss user had an APM of 88 to my pathetic 93. The loss was embarrassing because I know in my heart I could have won it if only I used my units intelligently and focused on making more units. Seems he went to reavers as soon as he could. That damn reaver killed 10 of my scvs. Nine minutes into the game I could have attacked him and totally owned, but was completely oblivious. He only had about 4 goons. Look at the pictures.
Terrible... I'm getting upset thinking about how I fucked this game up... I tried to whisper the guy for a rematch but he wasn't online. I need to take the losses in stride I guess...

..So my sucky timing allowed him to make an army. I pushed, didn't use my units well when I did and didn't back up my units. Not a good game! (Even though it lasted 20 minutes)
Fourth Game: Somehow, I wasn't signed in to iCCup so the replay wasn't saved. He could have hacked for all I know. It was a zerg guy and jacked me with lurkers even though I had 3 bunkers... I didn't have any tanks... so much for relying on bunkers.. Damn those lurkers. They are such a pain in the ass. You will get yours one day!

Fifth: Another protoss guy with an APM of 186... how strange. Mine was 103 this time. It was the shortest game of them all ending 5 minutes in. He sent two goons when I had 3 marines. At that point I came to a realization that I didn't especially know how to stop early goon attack. Unlike python, it didn't start the players on upper ground. I look pretty noob in this game.
Okay, so I know I fucked up by making another factory and not making a bunker. I was slow with getting my first tank. Ending the night with games like this won't allow me to sleep easily. I'm pretty sure I'll be thinking about what I could have done all night and dream of hotkeying units.

I came to another realization after the last loss. I didn't exactly have a set plan that makes the most sense. My gameplay is short of good fore-sight. The next time I play, I will think critically about the best choices one can make in certain situations. Meditation before a game seems to be a smart thing to do. I find myself extremely cautious and afraid of the enemy, maybe that's one of the things that hold me back from playing well. It always feels like the enemy has much more than I do, it works my nerves. Maybe it's because it's been so long since I've played protoss, who knows. I only had a general idea to make vultures and tanks, that's all. I panic whenever I see the enemy. Gotta work on that.

Tell me if you'd like to see a replay for any of the games.

Hotkey/Scout Trainer

There is this UMS hotkey/scout trainer that is really helping me keep up a high APM. It focuses on terran of course and the objectives are: 1. kill a zerg base in less than 15 minutes 2. pick up a civilian from an island to drop it off on a beacon 3. constantly move an scv around from a murderous zeolot that resides on yet another island. If five of your scvs die you lose (I lost 4). If you go over 1000 minerals you lose. If you don't destroy all of the zerg base in the given time you lose.

I've finally beat it after playing it about 12 times. A quick check on BWChart shows I had an APM of 176. It would be sweet if I could have an APM like that in a real game, but until then I'll have to work on my timing and hotkeys a little better. THEN I BECOME A LEGEND!!

On another note, at GosuGamers.net, they have Replays of the Week now. I checked them all out and found the latest one to be the best one yet. It was a simply amazing tvt game that lasted for over an hour. Amazing. Sure there is a time when no action is taking place but the ending is worth waiting for. You can check it out here. Enjoy

Disclaimer: You could still suck no matter how much you use this.

Replay

Here is the link to download the replay of my last game.

Two on the House

I just finished playing two games on iCCup. They both were tough, both were losses. The first was on a map I've never played before so I was already in for an ass whooping. The guy sent 3 or four zealots into my base as soon as he could and gave me somewhat trouble. It was a strange map because there was a narrow gap that only workers could pass, until the two buildings were destroyed. Then, nothing could get through, so I had to resort to drop ships. I had no expansion and he did. Took no time at all to fall behind. Then, he made about 6 carriers and destroyed my expo when I finally got enough to push out against his goons and zeolots. I ran out of minerals quite quickly once my expo was lost. My APM must have been real low and I'm just going to block that game out of my mind.

Before the second game began, I practiced my hotkeys on a UMS (Use Map Settings) map so I could build my APM up. Then I began to play against a zerg player. It lasted almost 16 minutes. He expoed and sent about 6 zerglings into my base. I fended it off and he tried to send about 13 a bit later. I killed him off and expoed soon after. I began my academy building really late. My APM for the game was 107; his was 131. It wasn't exactly a great difference in APM but I could do better. I slipped up for a moment by letting 5 of my units die before being KOed. I must have tried to hotkey a scv to go toward his units but sent a hotkey group.


Above you can see the last two of the six zerglings he sent to my base. I defended well using scvs and marines. But I didn't start a new command center or a academy. I'm at 23/26 units. His few units got my full attention. I need to work on doing other things when I've fended off a few units.Soon after, he sent 12 zerglings to me to put on pressure. I'm thinking he either wanted to stop an expo or really thought I didn't have much. If he was trying to end it quick, he failed. I still have no academy here.
After a pathetic muta harass on my minerals he went on to make about 7 lurkers. I've tried to do what I can but obviously didn't have enough to take the lurkers out. I ran away with my few marines with nothing to stop his lifted lurkers from going into my base.This is the point I began to officially lose. I had nothing in the bunkers and just a few marines and tanks. GG

I've got to remember to make my academy at about 23-24 unit supply. Once I get my medics and a few firebats, I should begin making tanks and vessels, scan whatever units he has, try to drop when I have enough and be able to fend off 12 lurkers. I'm thinking a ratio of 1 to 8, tanks to marines, is a good idea to try. Then, make vessels whenever the starport is open. If I see lurkers coming, I'll make three or four bunkers, fill them up and try to drop some marines before I begin to push. All the while making more units, defending and cleaning up my base.