Starcraft II Voyage

I have decided to put the priority of SCII voyage much lower. At one point it was just bellow school. I have no problem with this but in my circumstance I don't think it is a wise decision. I have a new priority. This priority came after my brief giving up of SCII. I still plan to get to master. But it will take much longer. My year goal of getting to master has not been met.

Regardless of the bad news I have made a switch to Zerg. I am not sure if this is a temporary switch or not. But as a small goal I would like to get to around where I was with Terran. I have already got passed the uncomfortable stage. I am now at point where I am learning very fast. I will often learn something in every game. I would say I am around Gold currently.

I have decided to use my main NA account to play Zerg. I thought it would be cool to get to lvl 60. This has destroyed my mmr but I dont care! Worst case I can cream some people with Terran to get it back. I like Zerg. So far I like Terran more but that could change. I'm thinking in a year I might switch to Toss.

Since my last post their have been some interesting developments. I have had a large break from SCII. This was a break unlike others as I was focusing on another game, League of Legends. This went on for about 5 weeks. I played no SC.

I was playing more and more LOL and then I stopped playing SC. I briefly considered turning SC Voyage into LOL Voyage. That is behind me and the break did me good. I realized that LOL is a fun game and is great to play with friends. But I would classify it as a game. Unlike SCII. Which although it is a game it is so much more. The more I played league the more I noticed that it has more depth than one might think. But I reached a point of burnout. I got bored after my 5 week switch. Also  in league their are no magical moments where you get a thrill of adrenalin.

When I returned I was in Gold. When I was placed in Gold it was at the beginning of the season. So everyone was on an even playing field. And if I had continued to play at the start of the season I imagine it would have been easy to get to plat. When I came back 5 weeks later I was at the bottom of Gold. So I have had to grind my way to Plat. This was an easy grind. I have been winning 80% of my games. This has made it a smooth transition back. I have been better than most of my opponents, So I have had the opportunity to reclaim my muscle memory while playing in ranked. My game is not where it left off but I imagine once I play against tougher opponents I will be getting better.

I learned a few things from LOL. Mainly the desire for map control.  I have been doing this using marines. It is good. I have also been doing good with early game scouting. I feel that I have been playing well but it is hard to tell because I have been quite a bit better than my opponents.

I have not had a reason to update the blog. But I wanted to post as to not leave gaps between posts too large.

My gameplay has gone down because of life. But now the summer is here and I plan to get Master. I have nearly got to where I peaked before. I have been demoted to Platinum on EU. When I get to Diamond which looks like it will be soon I will start playing on AM again. I am looking forward to playing on AM again. I think there will be less latency, I hope. And it will be nice to log games on my maion account again. I currently have 237 games on EU. It feels like it has been along time since I have played on my main account.

I think that as soon as I start playing at least semi regularly I will be good to go. I am playing more but still not consitably. I think I will be good if I have three sessions a week.  I hope to play more.

In HOts I have been having huge trouble TvZ. But yesterday I got over that hump. I was lost at how to play the matchup buit I have found a method for playing now. This will make my mmr go up definitly as before I was loosing 75 percent of my Zerg games. While it has not been that that I hjave got a new TvZ stratagy the win rate is currently about 75%. I am currenlty comfortable in all three match ups. But I am least comfortable TvP. But I expect once I start working on ghost micro again and play a bit more I will be ok.

In TvZ I now go mmm widow mines. I Hellion FE into super early upgrades and an early third. I need to work on my hellion controll. My micro is ok but often they do very little. I make 6-8 and then start WM production and maruders while I get my buildings up. I am happy with how it is going. I have a little issue with lots of Mutalisks.

I got Diamond in hots. I feel a little upset I did not get it in Wings though. It feels a little undeserving. I have seen that there have been allot of promotions on reddit. I have three theories that demote the validity of my promotion. One is that the people in Wings who were in Diamond were not active players but maintained a Diamond spot. My second theory is that players in wings were so comfortable with wings that hots has thrown them off. My third theory is that since hots has a smaller base of games to deduce my mmr it promotes one quicker than an account with two thousand games. HAHA or I could just be a bad ass who has earned Diamond.

 I have not been playing consistently since my last post but I have since the release of hots. I have made a few key improvements to my gameplay. I have always thought I was actively pursuing these goals but these new “abilities” seemed to have really kicked in.

 The most influential contributor to my development as a player is I now use army hot keys. This changes the game so much. I feel that I have more control over the game. I have lots of work in this department, but the use of army hotskeys has really helped my play. I use 1 for whole and 2 for tanks or ghosts. I am getting good at the tanks. I am getting better at using ghosts. I have lots of work on ghost micro. BUTTTTT my ghost micro has really developed.  I need to learn to use a drop hotkey. And for early game multiple divisions of my army should be hot keyed, for drop defense and such. The use of army hotkeys is only getting better. My early game micro has gotten better dealing with reapers, probe harass ect. I have although I am not consistently doing this,

macroed and microed at the same time. Once this develops more I will have a boon in my play.

I have seen a few Lastshadow games.  He was one of the people who got me into SC2. His Vlogs are great. I have developed greatly since I last saw him last play.  I now see his play style. It does not resonate that much with me. While watching him I was able to take something great away. He constructs a very large amount of cc’s. I thought I would give this a try in my play mid to late game. I have found it to be very helpful. It has made me realize that I have great early game macro and ok mid game macro. My mid game macro has not been bad I just have not been pushing it. Now I relies that I can make a shit ton of cc’s and production. I knew this in theory before. But now I have started acting. Once I become more accustomed to this very strong mid/late game macro I think I will get another plus one. It is very exciting to have several new things to develop.

Aside from hotkeys my micro is getting better, especially tvp. I am not sure why but I attribute my micro getting better to playing as Zerg. As Zerg I only play roaches. I am starting to find good engagements in all match ups. I still have a long way to go but I feel less blind now. There are still micro situations that I am clueless about but as I play more there will only be less. TvT is my hardest micro match up, blasted tanks!

For some reason I feel like I totally get tvp now. I still have things to work on but after x amount of games the match up will be mine. TvP is my current best match up. I feel like I have been winning 75 % of my tvp. My current weakest matchup is either tvt or tvz, I feel like it is tvz.

I had a TvP that had rather a great effect on me. It was a typical game. In the mid of the game I went to engage. Like all other games I expected to lose as he had HT. I had ghosts. I managed to emp his whole army and the all the HT. This gave me a crazy shot of adrenalin, no BS. After it happened I could not move for a little bit. After the game I checked the replay and saw that my apm dropped to 0 for a couple of seconds. It is amazing that a game can evoke a shot of adrenalin.

I started playing a bit of Zerg. An update just came out that allows one account to work on multiple servers. So It is like having multiple practice accounts, which is great. It has enabled me to practice Zerg in a real matchmaking system. I think I got gold on  SEA. I briefly thought I liked Zerg more that Terran but I think it was just that it is different. I know Terran is my race. I am thinking that I should  become comfortable with all races. This is partly due to watching pie play. He is comfortable playing multiple races. His skill level is also around mine. Its seems good to offrace when you are not 100% or when you are not hot. I now understand the macro and other aspects of Zerg. What I don't know is what to make and when. I have been going purely roach, sometimes making BL. I have been following the Bronze to Master guide. So far I have only watched the first Vid. It's fun to play a race your not good at. With Terran I have a formula that can be taxing to follow . With Zerg I don't know what to do so I just do. I'm not sure if I will try and get Zerg to plat or try and get Protoss to gold. I was surprised how little time it took me to get where I am with Zerg. I am still I'm not looking forward to getting over the inccial learning curb with Toss.

It seems I have come along way since I got into plat, I am surprised at how large plat is. Over the break I have learned allot of game knowledge, I don't think my macro or micro has improved, although my apm may have gone up. But I know how to react to things better and I know how to scout better, especially TvT.

I have had somewhat of a revolutionary learning about the ghost. I have been using emp the wrong way. I now know how I should use it. I am excited to test it out but I have not had the chance yet. My TvP has got allot better. I now make more marauders, which has changed TvP. The way I play TvP had generally gotten better. I think that I win more TvP than before. I also think my TvT is getting better. I am quite confident in all match ups atm. Not that I am winning allot. Just I feel my understanding of the game is  good. It is only a matter of time before I get Diamond,

It seems as if it has been awhile. It feels like lots has happened.

One of the most interesting things that has happened has been the development of Hunter E-sports. Which is a club at Hunter college that me and VJ have started. I am the treasurer and he is the president. It started out with just me and him and now we have maybe 22 members. We have a Facebook group and a Skype group. We have had one group meet up that was not greatly successful but it was fun. The Skype group is surprisingly active. I'm not really one of the active communicators on Skype but I imagine when I meet people in person I might warm up to it. We are not yet an official club but should be next semester. We have just added a League of Legends division. Whilst that division does not really interest me, I do think that the more the merrier. After finals we will be having another group meet up at NetZone, I hope to meet some more members and have some fun! We are having a tournament.

Our club has a range of different skilled members. I am yet to be play any multiplayer games (2v2). What I have done is played against people who are better than me, they are so much better I would not meet them on ladder. Higher skilled people offer tips and put things into perspective. This will be a great resource.  As people are helping me I would also be happy to help someone that would need my help, I imagine it would be fun.

I have been short of time but I have been trying to develop as a player. I now wonder if it will be possible to make it to master with the amount of time I'm putting in (within a year). I need to find out my deadline. I know that I could get master if I had the time. But I do not have the time. I'm also working on getting a job, unfortunately I have to move out, I'm currently sleeping on a couch and all my possessions are in a cupboard. When I get a job I really fear the time I will be able to put in. I think I will be able to make Diamond, I'm not to close now but I can smell it. I'm currently approaching my winter break and my goal during the break is to get a job and to get into Diamond. I think I can do it, I think I have a month off. Maybe if I get into Desmond I can reach Master in time for my Voyage goal.

Since my last post I have developed as a player. Most notably I would say that I can now scout. It has clicked and I get it. I now understand the basics of scouting. Whist this is true I am still far from making perfect interpretations and reacting properly. But I feel I have the foundation, so I can build upon what I have. I still misinterpret things but as I continue to play I can close the gap of what things mean. My sense of what is happening is much better. Instead of it being a clusterfuck I now have a sense of who is behind and who is winning form subtleties.

VJ has continued to help me. If I ever have a question he helps me. I can not think of a time that he has not been able to give me a satisfactory answer. He has great knowledge of SC2. VJ has also become a good friend. It is good to have a friend who I can nerd out about SC. I am not a common visitor to the Skype group but in the group they are fellow SC nerds and they are good to talk too.

The second improvement is more of a work in progress, putting units into Hotkeys and using them. This is being more of a steady and slow hill. But it is still something I'm working on. I would like to do some one bass pushes to try and focus on using army Hotkeys. I am undoubtedly putting my army into Hotkeys more. Maybe during this break I can push for really getting my Army Hotkeys down.

I have discovered that my mood or attitude play a vital role in my success. If I am in a good mood and feel well I have a higher chance of wining. Likewise if I am in a poor mood I will loose more often. I have started trying to not play when I am in a poor mood, or at least try to change my mood. 

TVZ

I have been doing good against Zerg. I am very comfortable against Zerg atm. I would say that currently this is my best match up. I am opening 1 Rax FE into double Hellions and banshee. I then transition into marine tank. This is the only build I use and I think it is the Standard tvz build atm. My execution is getting better but I still have lots of room for improvement.

TVP

I think tvp is my favourite match up. But I think I do ok in the match up. With me being able to scout I am doing allot betting than before especially against cheese. I think that what will make me win more in this match up is control over the Ghost. Once I can utilize the Ghost and EMP comfortably I will be in the money in TvP. I 1rax FE every game into MMM.

TVT

TvT is my weakest match up. I expect to lose TvT. I do not have a standard build and I'm not comfortable with the match up. I dread TvT. I have not spoken to VJ about TvT. I hope that when I do it will make me feel more comfortable with the match up. The most frequent build I do is 1 raxe FE into double gass and fast tanks. But I have recently been told that I should just go straight into MMM and then get tanks, because of mobility. I have not tried this out yet but shall.

GEAR

Times are tough. I have no time to play. I have been playing on the weekend but not allot. It feels like their is no progress because I'm not spending enough time playing. There is no more time to spend playing. I also have to get a job. I will have even less time then. All I want to do is play sc. But I have to do life shit. I would like to figure out a way to stay in shape. I feel like every time I play at the moment I don't even get comfortable. This is depressing. The way things are going I dont see how I can improve.

I just bought a new mouse. I was going to get a new computer but thought it would be irresponsible, I got a mouse instead. It is a steel series kinzu v2 pro. I have been using a 5 doller dell mouse. It has done me well but an upgrade will be welcome.