Ladder Reconfiguration

Blizzard changed how the global ladder works so now it has become harder to rank up. They secretly made the changes to the ladder, so later when they admit to it, I look back to how my games went for that day, I lost every single one. My MMR dropped down faster than Remastered's popularity. I wish blizz didn't keep it a secret because it partially led to me taking a fairly long break out of frustration.

This season, season 5, I've played 142 games so far. Almost hard to believe. I'm not sure I can describe my experience as distinctly remembering any of my first 100 games feels impossible, so I'll talk of my current issues.

Each session heats me up. That players can keep their cool at higher levels is testament to their mental fortitude. Maybe it's a personal trait, but my thoughts linger on games for quite a while after they're over. Playing before bedtime makes falling asleep a struggle as I have to keep catching myself thinking about what I should have done during a game. Googling some methods of calming down and relaxing has somewhat helped.

Now to the juice. I've started some builds that I don't normally do. In TvP, I've decided to fast expand every game. It's very common in pro games and I feel it's an important strat. There are a lot of maps and a lot of map positions. I plan to figure out the positions during games and hope it's the right. So far so good. No protoss players are aggressive with quick zealots lately so I haven't felt the most difficult part yet. Sending 2 scvs for each zealot and reading what the protoss is producing is key. The maps determine what opponents are likely to do. Two player maps seem to produce the most aggressive players. What seems true as far as I can tell is players that do quick drops or try to back door are often not ready for when the opponent does it back two minutes later.

Effectively using vultures while simultaneously macroing is definitely a challenge. In TvT my normal build is to fact expand into vultures except for an occasional fast expand (into 2 port wraiths). Games feel pretty erratic. The same opponent strats don't occur often. Only one game had a guy make lots of  factories pumping vultures to overwhelm me.

TvZ has the most all ins. Especially at D rank. If I can scout it, I can defend. Due to lack of macro games, my mech transition is still weak. I usually don't have enough mines out to transition more smoothly. Maybe more research is needed for this.

You may occasionally catch me live streaming. I play as best as I possibly can. It's hard to win in ways that I want. Pro players are amazing when it comes to timings, but I either forget them or fail execution. Blows my mind watching VODs of Flash doing his magic.

Rage Queuing

Yesterday, I've queued into 19 games in a row. That I lose to extremely ridiculous things is the only reason I hit the queue button so quickly. Losses are mostly due to seeing 1 base play and not not being as defensive as I should be as I expand. DT rush/drop, reaver drop, hidden gateways, wraiths, 2 factory.  Even a zerg going hydras catches me off guard every now and then. Definitely feels I could do better against such things. DT drops are especially annoying because turrets seem so easy destroy or avoid. Scans don't last. It's easier to queue up when you KNOW you lost due to ignorance.
Worst of all is being unable to even scout out whether the opponent has expanded. It feels like such a shame to send two scvs to figure it out.

Nonetheless, Brood War is now the easiest it's ever been to play. Custom hotkeys and the keyboard input fix make the game much more approachable. Opponents are mostly around the same skill level. The maps on the other hand... whew a few are pretty bizarre. 

Blockchain

I can poke into B rank every now and then, but the requirement into being a steady B rank will require more experience. This new season will be a beauty.

Hitting B

The battle.net ladder has decided to give me B rank for some reason. I'm happy about it but still feel a bit dissatisfied. Seems I can only get there beating D and C ranked players. B ranked players themselves I hardly ever beat, but then again if I could beat them I'd be a lot closer to A rank. For now I will settle for my true rank to be C+.

I wish I could know how the battle.net ladder scales to the old iCCup because I have never been able to reach C- rank on it. The answer to that may be lost forever, so I'll put the thought to rest. The game is better now and looking back on my skill doesn't help me.

Only thing that hasn't changed is how stressed I still get from playing. Two or three games at a time is all I can do. Still, I feel as if I've gotten better.

1pq Remastered

Brood War will be receiving an influx of fresh new players soon. It's time to get excited! Already pre-ordered so now all there is to do is to sit and wait for my glorious hotkeys and fair ladder (the new graphics will be nice too I guess).

I've been prepping myself a bit by playing on the fish server. I must say the experience was nice, though still frustrating. There are a shit load of Koreans around my skill level and things can get heated. The most frustrating of all is still TvP. I've learned how to sim city my base in order to  maneuver marines between buildings so I can more easily take care of early zealots... LIKE THE PROS, but I've yet to handle them well. Results left me to believe that it's not MY fault, but my mouse's. With google fu I've found out about DPI and how 400-800 is probably best for good micro management. My mouse was set to 1600 DPI thinking I could be accurate enough with a quickness bonus. I don't think it helped me as much as I thought looking back. I couldn't even split my first few workers well at the start of the game. I lowered my DPI to 800 and I can split MUCH better now. Hopefully I can do a bit better against early zealot aggression with this setting.

Also a more precise mouse click will help a lot with clicking the minimap. You've really got to work well with the minimap to win games.

A downside to lowering my DPI to 800 is screen scrolling being a touch more difficult. It will take some getting used to but I can manage. I can't lower it any more because I don't have enough space on my desk to place a big mousepad.

Gameplay-wise, I'm trying to shift my goal from always aggression to area control. This mentality has helped calm my impatient nerves wanting to finish the game quick.

TvZ is still fun. Making a smooth mech switch into the late game remains a fantasy of mine. Reading 2 base hatchery and properly defending the earlier lurkers and mutas is still something I need to work on. Just have to keep in mind that my economy will be ahead if I fend it off properly.

TvT is a cluster fuck as always. Slowly learning more and more about it with area control and counters. If you fuck up getting sufficient map control in the early game you're pretty fucked.

TvP 2 base pushes are ugly. It's hard to determine when the best moment is to siege. Experience will help.

                     † May we worker split with grace †

Season 39 and Starbow - hello twitch.tv

Season 39 on iccup has begun. Things are different player base wise. There seems to be more C- level players than D in light of the 60 games I've played. Despite that, I can get some exciting games.

Still, brood war pushes one into having tunnel vision and one can end up losing as a result. Some things one needs to do quickly, precisely and very periodically, like cycling through production, and the rest I've decided I should slow down and be more steady. Reading the opponent and doing the right things still require some thinking. I've not been focusing on one race matchup so it's doubly important to steadily/carefully keep an eye on my position and what I'm doing. Forcing myself to go any faster is just going to lead to bad plays.

Changes is my Gameplay

In the early game, I think it's wise to hotkey my CCs to 3 and 4 until my two base economy is doing well enough that I have three control groups worth of an army. 5 and 6 will still go to factory/barracks and f3 will still be camera location over army production. I think I'm doing okay with using the camera location when I have more than two army production buildings.

TvT is sloppy. If the game goes far enough I only use my hotkeys for wraiths. This truly is a game of positioning and I've not quite yet worked out which units I should be hotkeying in the later stages of the game. It feels almost better to select attack/move at times. Also, being aggressive at the right times is challenging, but fun.

 

TvP I've been playing mostly standard factory expand. Every now and then I do the one base vulture drop. It once worked well but my follow up was lackluster so I still lost. 

Streaming on twitch.tv

https://www.twitch.tv/onepq

Seems my computer is good enough for streaming now. Finally I can show off my skills! I'm sure funny things will be happening. For now, it's Starbow and Brood War.

My overall goal right now is to just see funny things happen.

Low level play

Starbow is definitely what I wanted from starcraft 2. The unit interaction is top notch! Skill plays a part as the lurkers, dragoons, defilers, reavers, science vessel have returned with a few new abilities.

A revamped starcraft have finally arrived, being just as I wished. Starbow takes the best from brood war and sc2 to a masterpiece. I'm thinking this could be big

Starbow

There is a nice Starcraft 2 mod that's out. It shows promise. Can this be the future of starcraft?

26-46

Week 1: I still have a problem expanding against a protoss. D+ protoss players are a real pain in the ass because they never go where you want them to go, they make too many zeolots and they expand too fucking much.

Man, it's going to be a bitch learning how to beat a protoss that's ahead, has 10 dragoons and 30 zeolots. Whatever I have evaporates. In the beginning if they make a zeolot first, I struggle dealing with it. Then the dragoons come after that... delaying my CC far too long.

Week 2: Staying D+ isn't as easy as I remember.

Went on a 7 game losing streak to have two interesting games (I won) against protoss players with < 140 apm.

Barely beat a protoss with 67 apm... I think I'm going to cry.

Dreamt I was playing starcraft. Even there... I lose.

So... I'm having trouble harassing. I've been trying but my vultures always die so quickly. I can't rely on my mech ball all the time, as it definitely isn't working in my favor. My eapm is 90-127, very bad. Is my slow speed and poor macro my second wall? Or is it my mechanics? Everything feels so chaotic when I push. I wonder if my brain is even capable of reaching C-... I have little confidence in my tvp :-[ I'm so afraid of recall and zeolots...

Truth be told, I believe my protoss could beat my terran. I honestly feel I can reach at least C- with protoss. How many people could truly say their offrace could beat their main?

This is the most losses I've ever had in a season. (46)

WOE IS ME.

Starcraft 2
I have seen a few of the new starcraft units that will be in the expansion. There will be a flying zerg thing that can create a cloud that stops units from doing long ranged attacks, it's similar to disruption web... Very interesting, blizzard really may know what they're doing after all @_@ I'm still going to wait until the final expansion but if I find these units micro intensive...

There is also a "shredder", battle hellion, and warhound for the terran. The warhound is good against mech units and has area of affect anti air... I'm not sure what to think of it yet. Battle hellion seems meh... But the shredder - Creates a whirlwind of death but disables when friendly units are near. it will be of most use against zerg I think. We'll see.

'Til next month.

Self-Destruction Sequence Malfunction

I continued to play anyway. I went so far as to play 4 hours a day for almost a week before my computer died on me so I had no way of playing. My social life is fine. And my computer seems to be working now. Time to start back up.

Maybe I should work on my TvT. In my early career I've lost so much tvt I've grown afraid of it. How do you overcome fear?

Eventually, I will have my own stream on TL.

I'll update on my progress and my thoughts on the new starcraft 2 units next month! C- here I come!

No Re

And so. That's it. Thanks to the noobs that made the game enjoyable. I will follow the expansions of sc2 just to see what they add, but I don't think anything they add would stir my interest.

I see BW as a great game but it doesn't seem to be doing well for my social life. There are no PC Bangs here. I can't walk up to people and talk about games. There are no friday night gatherings having a LAN party.

This journey has already passed it's peak. I'm halfway back home. It's a shame to be introduced to a world one can't fully explore.

This blog will self-destruct in 16 days

Seeing TvZ with new eyes

Learning things!

I've been barely losing to some zergs I suspect to be C- max. Recently just play a zerg, cut him down to just his main and his one expansion and lost due to bad macro. It was a sure win. Map control has been improving slightly. Just having my marines running around causes most zergs to tense up and defend. My science vessel timing has gotten better. It's nice not to lose to mass mutas anymore.

It's okay to let your macro slip when you're trying to drop and attack at the same time. I just have to make more buildings before that time comes, and try to spend as quickly as possible. Queueing units is more acceptable the longer the game goes.

Mutas aren't of much concern anymore thank goodness. Late game is going to be a challenge. Especially when my drops do no damage. I've been paying more attention to dropping on spots that do the most damage. Surprisingly, dropping behind their natural can do lots of damage and leave them disgruntled.

Something is still perplexing me. How the hell do people have over 200 apm? Are they merely switching between their building units the entire game? How the hell do you make 200 your MINIMUM apm in a 25 minute game?

I am so bad. I'm going to focus more on my TvZ.

Just hit D+. Took only 32 games :-[

Laptop Depression

I've always played Brood War on my laptop for years and never thought I had any disadvantage. Boy was I wrong. After playing some games on my desktop I felt faster and more in control! I absolutely know it's because the laptop keys are so small. It's horrible how easy it is to hit the wrong key. I'm such an idiot for thinking smaller, closer together keys would be better. I've always thought it was hard to irradiate things. Now I know it's because there's a greater chance of missing "i". I have to look down at the keyboard to get it right. The fastest typist in the world isn't going to be using a damn laptop. I guarantee it!

That's not the only thing. I believe a widescreen monitor also gives you a disadvantage. The mouse doesn't move as it should.

Also, the monitor should be a certain distance away from your face. Laptops are usually so close you can't see the whole screen as easily as possible. If I could feel my aim getting off from playing Halo too close to a big screen television, then I know starcraft wouldn't be all that different. Especially when you need to keep an eye on the minimap. Not to mention how being close to the screen strains your eyes even more.

I'm going to be a desktop player from now on.

B- with Protoss

I've been watching a bit of a B- max protoss player's stream. I used to think protoss was easiest up to D+/C- but wow, I think it goes all the way up to B-. All you have to do is make use of DT's and be sure to spend all your minerals. You don't have to micro much. Just send all your units in. You don't even have to hotkey your unit groups. Reselecting them will get you to B-. Though you do have to be sure to send them when the terran army is more open to attack.

In TvP, it's become even more apparent to me that the terran army is vultures alone until you've got a sizable 4 group army pushing out. Tanks ought to be thought of as stationary buildings, especially for the 1 fact expand. Hotkeying them until you are pushing out is not necessary. The first half of the game should consist of vulture harassing, laying mines. Being defensive. Also, not many tanks are necessary in the early game.

It sucks eggs that terran has to be so defensive in TvP for most of the game but it must be accepted that terran is strongest with the large mech ball (which I think should contain at least 4 hotkey groups of units).

It's weird. I beat a protoss that is currently C- (apm 108 wtf?) and all he did was mass up and send every thing. I would have lost if it wasn't for my superior unit positioning. If PvT is so easy, I understand even more how hard ZvP is for most people.

101 Best Free Games of 2010

1up.com has this every year and it's the only reason I ever visit their site. These keep me entertained for quite some time.

http://www.1up.com/features/101-free-games-2010_2

Not laying down to die

Just played a guy I assume to be C- (had a 240 apm) and stuck it out with him for a while. I did some good drops and had a whole bunch of science vessels I used pretty well. But alas, my macro was horrible, and expanding against a zerg is pretty difficult unless you have map control. Fighting spirit is definitely a macro map. The funny thing is, I did have map control, but then, I went to save my expo I stupidly put halfway across the map (one ultralisk was killing it) and map control went right out the window. Science vessels died marines started running low, tried to make another expo and failed.

But I did well to be playing a guy with 100 more actions per minute than myself

ONWARDS TO BLAH

Going backwards

Is it too late to become good at Broodwar? Played my first game in months today. I still want to see how good I can become. So far, my APM dropped in TvP (115). I've got to warm up before I start learning again. All the hotkeys are still in my memory bank, but BO is all screwy.

DOES ANYONE STILL PLAY BROODWAR 1v1!?! My 1000 games goal is still sitting there. Let's see how far I can go before I crack and quit! Any bets on how many games I can go?

The pressure is high on iccup, it's more competitive and there are even more smurfs. One thing I have forgotten is how mentally taxing it can be. I don't know if that is good or bad. May the gods have mercy on my mortal soul.

Starcraft 2 Goal

Recently made up my mind to do ONE THOUSAND 1V1'S in starcraft 2. My real life friends have finally bought the game, and I'm going to go all out. Placement matches were easy as always. A protoss guy pretended he didn't know english when I typed "gl hf" at the start, then started cursing me out and talking about being glad the fail terran is going to be nerfed at the end. I love it. Then there was a zerg that got whooped by my flying thors :-)

It seems I'm going to cross a lot of tears over terran being imbalanced. heh, I see good times ahead.

I've played about 100 4v4 random games, and it's been gotten boring faster than I thought it would. There aren't that many strategies that will work well like they would in 1v1.

Only have faced gold players so far, and they got killed 6 of my units the entire game. PDD and banshee is going to be my main weapon against protoss, and thors against zerg. They work really well. I'll update when I reach 100 :-)

GL HF

Let Down

Starcraft 2 isn't as fun or entertaining as Brood War. I admit, Starcraft 2 is easier to play and it will be incredibly popular, but I just don't see myself playing a game that's a step down when it comes to mechanics.

Lots of terran players from the Brood War chose to play terran because it's the hardest to learn up to C- rank on iCCup. I'm not sure if that has transferred into Starcraft 2 but I do know what thing, Brood War takes more skill and practice. I've been pissed and overwhelmed with anxiety plenty of times trying to ladder on iCCup, call me masochistt, I love the difficulty involved. Of the two choices, I'll probably always choose the more difficult.

I've picked back up to playing on iCCup, and in my TvZ, lost my marine army for not paying good enough attention to them. This is the game for me.

C-, here I come.

After Reset

Went to see how I'd do playing off race (Zerg) and was placed in gold league. I'm absolutely terrible as zerg.... Now I shall see if I can main race my way back to platinum.

My secret weapon is half-way done. It may even be done before this game is released. I'd hazard a guess that most of the gold league would be, in comparison to BW iCCup, D ranked players. At least the ones that have played more than 10 games.

Idea

I know this would never make it... but after games, I would like there to be an option to replay a guy I've lost to. Moreso if I were the favored player. Lots of guys do strategies that would definitely not work if I played them again, just as it was on BW.

I'd like a ranking system that encourages replaying people. As it would also encourage more dynamic play and more skillful games.

Maybe there can be an "elite" ranking system that's based on replaying people altogether.

Would be sweet.