Octopus Overlords

by **Little Raven** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 1:58 am

Well, it took my brother and I long time, but we finally found someone who's coattails we could ride all the way to the top.

That's right, WarPanda pulled through, even with me and ichbinunique dragging him down. The OO board has a Diamond team! WOOOO!!!

by **Matrix** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:31 am

Congrats, that is awesome. diamond is so far away for me.

I will start doing some team games when i hit gold, i feel right now i lack the most basic skills. My Macro has been improving ... a tiny bit. Still focusing too much on micro, but i think it will get better with time.

Here is the question for all you Zerg plat / diamond level players, lets say i am sitting on 3k minerals and strapping for gas, but has only 90 food, when i have 3 hatcheries. And my opponent is contained in his base for now. Should i A) start pumping speed lings to hit my pop limit 2) Go roaches 3) mine more gas, but what should i do with so much minerals in the mean time? 4) wait for more gas.

Should i operate at pop limit at all time if i can?

Almost every game i am sitting on load of minerals, and often time i am losing, or barely hanging on.

Also whats you strategy with Overlords, do you produce them in mass amounts or small amounts. For the longest time i was under producing them, sitting on whole bunch of minerals with pop at 60 and keep hitting my supply limit, now when i do have a breathing space i just make whole bunch like 3-6, and then work from there. So far working much better.

by **Little Raven** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:09 am

Matrix wrote:Still focusing too much on micro, but i think it will get better with time.

I'm sure you know this, but below Plat, macro beats micro every single time. Don't worry about getting the most out of your stuff...just build more stuff! Micro is great and all, but if you a 20 food advantage, it really doesn't matter. He's going down.

Should i A) start pumping speed lings to hit my pop limit 2) Go roaches 3) mine more gas, but what should i do with so much minerals in the mean time? 4) wait for more gas.

First, you should start mining more gas. A lot more gas. 3 base gas is just lovely for Zerg. So many mutas!

You should most assuredly not pump Zerglings, unless they haven't walled. (and if he hasn't walled, why is he still alive?) Zerglings are one of the best units in the game, but ONLY if they can surround the target. If they can't, they're borderline useless. Roaches...depends. If he's Terran and has tanks, no. If he's Protoss and has gateway units, sure.

But if you're on 3 base and he's on 1, then you have the advantage. And what do you do when you have the advantage? You get MORE of an advantage! So the right answer to this question is really just to contain him to one base, get all your gas running, then bury him alive. (if they're turtling, just get broodlords. Nothing beats a turtle like a broodlord!)

Should i operate at pop limit at all time if i can?

Well, you don't want to go absolutely crazy with the overlords, but you don't always have to be just at pop limit either. It's fine to give yourself some breathing room, especially if you're waiting for something like a spire to pop.

Almost every game i am sitting on load of minerals, and often time i am losing, or barely hanging on.

My rule of thumb - if I look up, and see more than 500 minerals, and I'm not saving for something, then it's time to plunk down another base. You're Zerg...you can't have too many bases. You only really need two bases doing minerals at any one time...but it's always nice to have extras doing gas. Gas is SOOOO very good for Zerg. Gas gives you Mutas, Infestors, Broodlords, Banelings...all the really really good stuff. Get as much as you can.

by **stessier** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:54 am

Great googly moogly - I suck again. I went 1-10 this morning. I lost to everything. I lost to Silver. I lost to Bronze. I even lost to a 6 pool! I never lose to that anymore. Everything I tried was wrong. It was absolutely pitiful.

ARGHHHHHH!!!!

by **Matrix** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:13 pm

Damn i typed up post and then it didnt go trough when posted. To sum it up, will focus on macro over micro. I might even neglect micro on purpose for a short while just to see how macro alone works.
I have been doing more gas lately, but clearly not enough. Will be getting gas at expansions even before minerals, because i do tend to stuck with huge mineral reserves and no gas.

Question: upgrades, when do i get them? i read up on what they do, and they seem pretty viable often times, but when should i go for them in the game. Understandably, if i am not using unit a lot i dont need upgrades, but lets say i do , go mas hyrdra / roach, when shuold i get upgrades? i tend to get hydra range asap, but how about attack and defense.

When attacking with zerlings, do you round through the units and the press stop? or hold? to surround them, since attack button make them attack closest units.

Stessier, i know it sucks to lose in a row, normally if i lose 3 or so in a row, i take a brake, since i know for sure my game is off. Based on my experience in Age of kings (age of empires series) which i played pretty competitive, and was in top 10 for a while in it. I feel there are similarity, its all about fundamentals. I know right now my basic habits in SC are none existent and fundamentals are meh, idea is, as soon as i get them down it should start clicking, dont know when but at some point. On the other hand, without fundamentals i will be at most a mediocre player. If you lose 10 in a row, you should probably re-examine your fundamental skills in SC and decision making. Maybe play VS War panda or Little raven or gray fox and get some feed back from them. I am planing to do it once i hit high silver - low gold, when i got my basics down but still making mistakes.

by **stessier** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:55 pm

Matrix wrote:Damn i typed up post and then it didnt go trough when posted. To sum it up, will focus on micro over macro. I might even neglect micro on purpose for a short while just to see how macro alone works.

I don't think this means what you think it means - but I think I understand. That scares me a little.

Stessier, i know it sucks to lose in a row, normally if i lose 3 or so in a row, i take a brake, since i know for sure my game is off. Based on my experience in Age of kings (age of empires series) which i played pretty competitive, and was in top 10 for a while in it. I feel there are similarity, its all about fundamentals. I know right now my basic habits in SC are none existent and fundamentals are meh, idea is, as soon as i get them down it should start clicking, dont know when but at some point. On the other hand, without fundamentals i will be at most a mediocre player. If you lose 10 in a row, you should probably re-examine your fundamental skills in SC and decision making. Maybe play VS War panda or Little raven or gray fox and get some feed back from them. I am planing to do it once i hit high silver - low gold, when i got my basics down but still making mistakes.

I think the problems stem at least in part from going Random. Before, if I hit a losing streak, I knew what to concentrate on in the next game. Now, if I get rolled as Z v T, the next game I could be P v a Z. I have to just forget the past and figure out how to approach this match. I've started to make a little play book for each race match that I quickly refer to during that first minute while workering up. I only thought of it during the last 2 games, so I don't have much yet.

And I went 5 losses - 1 win (as Zerg against a P who didn't/wouldn't/couldn't expand) - 5 losses. The 6 pool was really annoying. I didn't get the spine crawlers down early enough and did poor with my drones. When I had them attack, the other guy ran away, so I went back to mining only to get hit with 12 lings rather than 6. It was all sorts of fail. The guy was Silver too, which was more annoying for some reason.

by **WarPanda** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:14 pm

IMO playing as random has certain advantages and disadvantages. Advantage wise the opponent does not know what you are and will not know if he needs to wall off etc.. Disadvantage wise you are playing all the races more but this generally causes me to actually learn slower.

I have played probably close to 1000 games as Toss maybe not even that much and I am still learning things playing as them. It is hard for me to imagine playing as random, I think it will just take longer to learn the races in general spreading out the energy that way.

At night we play with a couple of guys that play as random every time and I am not knocking it, works fine for them. If that is how you want to play then thats awesome. I find it easier to specialize. It is just easier for me.

by **Matrix** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:15 pm

stessier wrote:
Matrix wrote:Damn i typed up post and then it didnt go trough when posted. To sum it up, will focus on micro over macro. I might even neglect micro on purpose for a short while just to see how macro alone works.

I don't think this means what you think it means - but I think I understand. That scares me a little.

Ups should have said macro over micro. Fixed it.

One of the reasons i am not going random yet, macro is transferable skill between races, micro (which includes build orders in my opinion) is not. Hence i want my focus to be fully on one race until i can macro with it with ease, then i will start using other races. In Age of Kings, i was random player often because i knew each civilization in and out ( even inventing new strategies that were adapted by whole community of AOK players at the time), but in SC2 i am total noob and wont kid myself about my chances in random. I would probably go 0 20 if i did that before i got the essentials and if, big if, i got them.

by **stessier** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 5:25 pm

WarPanda wrote:IMO playing as random has certain advantages and disadvantages. Advantage wise the opponent does not know what you are and will not know if he needs to wall off etc.. Disadvantage wise you are playing all the races more but this generally causes me to actually learn slower.

I have played probably close to 1000 games as Toss maybe not even that much and I am still learning things playing as them. It is hard for me to imagine playing as random, I think it will just take longer to learn the races in general spreading out the energy that way.

At night we play with a couple of guys that play as random every time and I am not knocking it, works fine for them. If that is how you want to play then thats awesome. I find it easier to specialize. It is just easier for me.

I agree with all of this.

That is why I played them all to a certain level before moving on to the next one. Do I know them at Diamond level - no way. But I was good enough to increase my win ration in my league (bronze), so I was good enough at the time. I was winning >55% as Random before the promotion up to 27 games over .500 (raised from +19 to +27 while random).

So I guess the other part is the meta game/skill in Silver is probably such that it would be beneficial to go through all the races again until I start winning at the desired clip again. Maybe I'll have to do that at every promotion - guess it could be fun. Maybe work backwards this time - Zerg/Protoss/Terran since somehow I am more comfortable with Zerg than any of the others at the moment. Never thought I'd say that! :lol:

by **Little Raven** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 9:34 pm

Matrix wrote:Question: upgrades, when do i get them?

Soon. Very soon. Upgrades pay for themselves VERY quickly. If you're going roach-hydra, you really need to be upgrading your ranged and armor (maybe both) within 7 minutes. If I'm doing early Zergling pressure, I often go for +1 melee right after speed.

Basically, as soon as you can afford them.

When attacking with zerlings, do you round through the units and the press stop? or hold? to surround them, since attack button make them attack closest units.

Depends. You don't really have to do that if you're attacking slow units (hydras off creep) or if your opponent doesn't have any micro skills. But if you're up against speedy things trying to run, then you'll often want to move your Zerglings to cut off the bad guys, then hit a-move (or stop) to get them attacking.

by **BlottoBot** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 7:22 pm

Little Raven wrote:Depends. You don't really have to do that if you're attacking slow units (hydras off creep) or if your opponent doesn't have any micro skills. But if you're up against speedy things trying to run, then you'll often want to move your Zerglings to cut off the bad guys, then hit a-move (or stop) to get them attacking.

A Move is so important. I have lost an entire army when just normal moving. It was caught off side and destroyed without firing a single return shot.

by **Oneprince** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:51 am

Hey guys. Any groups you have going on that I could join? Would love to practice and improve. I play Zerg.

Name: Khruel #528

-Oneprince

by **WarPanda** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 11:40 am

Awesome more the merrier.

We meet most nights around 830-900om Central time. That is when there is usually a good group of us going. However there are a few guys that play more that I can.

In game name for me is WarPanda. I do not know my number off hand but I will look for ya. I need some practice against the zerg.

by **Little Raven** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:03 pm

I'm LittleRaven, code 273. Friend me up. We use Teamspeak to talk to each other in game so if you want to save some time download and install the Teamspeak 3 client ahead of time. The server info is in the Hosted Gaming Services thread or I'll give it to you in game.

As Panda said, we generally hook up around 9 pm central time, and play for a couple of hours. We range in skill from Bronze to high Plat, and generally team up against the internet though sometimes we take each other on. And don't believe Panda...he's very, very dangerous against Zerg. (or anything, for that matter)

by **stessier** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 6:00 pm

I'm generally only on in the very early morning, but I'm trying to change that to join the group at least 2x per week. Add Ashaman #301 when you get a chance!

by **Matrix** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 6:43 pm

Little Raven wrote:I'm LittleRaven, code 273. Friend me up. We use Teamspeak to talk to each other in game so if you want to save some time download and install the Teamspeak 3 client ahead of time. The server info is in the Hosted Gaming Services thread or I'll give it to you in game.

As Panda said, we generally hook up around 9 pm central time, and play for a couple of hours. We range in skill from Bronze to high Plat, and generally team up against the internet though sometimes we take each other on. And don't believe Panda...he's very, very dangerous against Zerg. (or anything, for that matter)

Khruel seems to be #4 plat in his leauge, i think War panda just got a challenge

I need to start getting better (and playing) or be left in the dust.

by **stessier** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 10:05 pm

Have any of you guys tried Star Battles? I found it this morning and think I like it. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, but I think if we ever got on as a team with Teamspeak, we could make some noise.

by **Grey Fox** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 2:55 am

stessier wrote:Have any of you guys tried Star Battles? I found it this morning and think I like it. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, but I think if we ever got on as a team with Teamspeak, we could make some noise.

I tried it a while ago, I liked it.

by **stessier** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 10:41 am

Thanks for the games last night Blotto! You truly are a Master of the Dark Arts.

by **BlottoBot** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 5:12 pm

stessier wrote:Thanks for the games last night Blotto! You truly are a Master of the Dark Arts.

It was a good time

its unbelievable how just having DTs can keep an opponent in their base

by **Little Raven** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 9:18 pm

Gah! Sorry about having to bail on you guys. That phone call turned into one of THOSE tech support calls from family. It was not a short affair.

by **stessier** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 3:34 pm

No problemo! Gave us the chance to take our show on the 2v2 circuit.

For future reference,

Build up enough of am army to keep Blotto free to tech to DTs
take the army he gives you and roll over all opposition
while he DTs the back of their bases.
...
Profit!

I've only been getting in 3-4 1v1 games a day (down from 10-12). I seem to be winning a bit more consistently though. I wonder if the pauses after each game to jot down my notes of what went well and what didn't are actually helping? :shock:

I'm 2 wins from my 25 Random portrait and it killed me to not press on this morning, but the snow shoveling beckoned.

by **stessier** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:43 pm

Oh, and a fun game from this morning.

I was Protoss v. Zerg. Dropped my pylon and went scouting on Lost Temple. Turns out I went the wrong direction and the Zerg found me first. As soon as he saw me, he left the base. Worrying about early harassment and having seen Blotto use it to good effect, I went Forge first. As it warped in, my probe found the Zerg and saw an FE. "Why not?" says I and start a pylon just out of view. As the Hive pops, I have two cannons half way done warping in. 4 zerglings run past, but I have a cannon up at my entrance and a Zealot just finishing, so my base was safe. The FE was toast.

A few more cannons, a brief encounter with 3 very pesky roaches, 3 more gates and Warp technology and suddenly his base was overrun. First time I've ever used cannons against a zerg. I think more might be in my future since I know how annoying it is to lose that FE.

by **WarPanda** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:52 pm

If you can please post the replay. They are so much fun to watch!

Little Raven will post the picture of what we achieved the other night?

by **stessier** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:58 pm

WarPanda wrote:If you can please post the replay. They are so much fun to watch!

Little Raven will post the picture of what we achieved the other night?

This one?

Congrats!

And will do on the replay.

by **ichbinunique** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 7:12 pm

So while I'll cop to not having tried Star Battles yet, you should play Aiur Chef once if you haven't yet. It's not complicated or deep but it's cute and has a very fun direction. It's worth 10 minutes.

by **BlottoBot** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 9:07 pm

stessier wrote:Oh, and a fun game from this morning.

I was Protoss v. Zerg. Dropped my pylon and went scouting on Lost Temple. Turns out I went the wrong direction and the Zerg found me first. As soon as he saw me, he left the base. Worrying about early harassment and having seen Blotto use it to good effect, I went Forge first. As it warped in, my probe found the Zerg and saw an FE. "Why not?" says I and start a pylon just out of view. As the Hive pops, I have two cannons half way done warping in. 4 zerglings run past, but I have a cannon up at my entrance and a Zealot just finishing, so my base was safe. The FE was toast.

A few more cannons, a brief encounter with 3 very pesky roaches, 3 more gates and Warp technology and suddenly his base was overrun. First time I've ever used cannons against a zerg. I think more might be in my future since I know how annoying it is to lose that FE.

cannon rushes versus zerg are really hard. you have to get them down before their expand finishes because of the creep. If the zerg player just cancels and starts unit production he often can over run your base at home. Not so easily done now, but versus zerg you can pin them inside there base with a couple (few now) pylons and cannons and cut off the zerg's expansion from their main.

by **WarPanda** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 9:26 pm

Blotto is correct.

stessier, actually we got another one.

by **BlottoBot** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:08 pm

you 2 are making me jealous!

edit

I thought you were going to say you made it to masters league

by **Little Raven** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:58 pm

stessier wrote:This one?

No. This one.

Panda and I now have two Diamonds!

by **Matrix** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 1:35 am

have been working late past few days, but trying to get few games every day to keep improving.

I tend to win vs zerg, lose vs prottos and relatively even vs terran. I think i am letting protos build up too much, will have to work on that.

PS:I am getting a bit better vs protos. Played 2 games today both vs protos, one tried to wall in with towers, and it was obious he was going for stargate build. Obious now, a week ago, same build took me apart.
This time around had a whole lot of Hydras, who took his Void rays apart. I was surprised how effective hydras vs them. Then he tried a very clamsy transition into robotics, but he already lost at that point.

Next game vs protos, who tried to pylon rush me, i caught his first pylon, then sent zerlings to harass, he tried to wall in, but not before my wave of zerglings arrived, he beated off, tried to go on offensive but at that point i realized that he hadnt walled of yet, and my now speedlings had a party in his base, he tried to counter attack with 6 zealots and a stalker (his base was overran at that point, with no probes left) but i had bunch of speedlings ready and picked off few zealots one by one, then finished his bunch. In this game i realized just how fast those speed lings are, hit and run perfect unit. He was in diamond in 3v3 and platinum in 2v2 (but only bronze in 1v1 with a few games to his name), so i am pretty happy how i dealt with him. He would probably would have outmacroed me.

Listened to Interview Idra, and some good Terran player on TvZ. Gave me better understanding of the meta game, and while they are in their own level of skills, few large take away were really good.
Now with zerg i tend to do light rush to test their defense and then if i feel its week, i send waves at them while expanding and if he strong, i macro and plan my next move. My Macro still need a lot of work, but at least i no longer lose to super obvious void ray rushes

by **stessier** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:26 am

Congrats to Panda and Raven!!! Death to all who stand in their way! :lol:

And congrats to Matrix too on those Protoss wins. Feels good when you stomp someone, no?

Matrix wrote:He was in diamond in 3v3 and platinum in 2v2 (but only bronze in 1v1 with a few games to his name), so i am pretty happy how i dealt with him.

Just so you know, team game ranking aren't really indicative of 1v1 ability. I'm Gold in 4v4 and was Silver in 3v3 & 2v2 at least a month before I got Silver in 1v1. It can be even more drastic if you play with a set team rather than go Random.

I forgot to upload the Zerg cannon contain replay last night. I blame a sick kid and 2 hours of sleep.

I still managed to play 3 games this morning. I'm still random, but was dealt Protoss in all 3. The first 2 were on Shakura against Silvers. In the very first one, the replay showed that had I pressured at the beginning rather than be scared off by 6 lousy speedlings, I probably would have been way ahead. Instead I ran off to my base to tech up, but had no focus. A while later, I was simply rolled over. Take away is the reminder to always have a plan!

The second game my mouse freaked out for about 1 minute and I couldn't do anything. That was just as I was about to head out and truly harass his FE. Instead, I tried to expand and got ready to defend. The first wave of roaches arrived a bit later and took out my sentries (poor FF play FTL), and that was pretty much all she wrote. Take away is make sure your mouse is working!!

Final game was on Metalopolis against a Gold Terran. I almost never use Protoss stargates. After losing those two, though, I figured I had nothing to lose. Got some gate way units to hold the ramp, then started making Voids. We were in close positions at the bottom of the map, so I sent them to rally on the top Gold, then moved them over to the starting locating above his and lo-and-behold, he had expanded there. The Voids caught him going OC. He tried to lift and run, but they blew it up before he got it back to the base. I then expanded, cannoned up, and kept making Voids. At about 9, I decided to attack his home base. This just happened to coincide with his push on me. So I took out a bit before his Vikings returned, took all those out, then took out his CC before the marines returned.

At that point I had switched over to making Voids and Carriers. Got 3 Carriers, 2 Voids and went at it again. That was pretty much it as I was on 3 bases at that point and dropping a 4th to his one.

In the replay, I saw that had he simply pushed rather than rush back to defend his base, he probably would have wiped me out before I wiped him out. I had virtually no other units besides my airforce. Still, a win is a win and the points I got exceeded those lost in the other two games, so still positive for the day. Hoo-ray for the Bonus Pool! :lol:

by **Matrix** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 3:28 am

Mehh, an ok games today. 5 wins 3 losses. All 3 losses vs protos, i am regressing again. Sad part in 2 of those 3 games i was in control, but in one he went in with 5-6 imortals vs my mostly roach army. I still wasnt sure what was the counter for them, now i know, its not more roaches. Should have gone for hydras. Sad parti took out his whole economy, and did roach drop in his second base, fully taking it out. Then rushed his main with mutas and killed most of the probes, thats when he went all in, and sad part, i knew he had imortals i had my overseer drooping changlings through out the game. Just didnt know how to counter then, next time going hydra. The second game, i stoped his proxy pylon rush, and then build up mass roach, not going to HIve, then he DTed me and it was game over. While against zerg i am dominating, had 3 vs zerg games today, won them all. I feel i keep miscounting protos units, got to start doing food count, anyone else does it? i keep looking at army, seeing that its small, and then that small army proceeds to decimate me. In most cases food count was on his side. Once fun tactics i found working vs zerg, is hiding worker for mini rush, and then putting spore crawler on oponents creep, for what ever reason most people dont notice it (hence the bronze league), and it usually results in game over, as long as it supported by zerglings.

I have been doing more upgrades, and i see big difference especially in zvz.

by **WarPanda** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 12:17 pm

The counter to Immortals is Zerglings. Fast Zerglings. Hydras are a good counter for stalkers. Immortals are the hard counter to immortals. You generally need ALOT of Roaches to kill Immortals. I once read, 1 Immortal is equal to 3-4 Roaches. Have not tested this though.

by **Matrix** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 1:04 pm

I looked up the stats, apparently immortal 3 shots a roach while taking 10dmg from roaches. Roaches never worked for me, i have run into imortalls before, but its first time i seen someone put 5-6 of them in one army. Just took me out like nothing. 3-4 would be a low estimate, to me it feels like i need 5 of them. They are hard counter to roaches. Hydras are light unit, and do dmg as light, hence i could see how they own imortalls (at least from what people say) did try counter of Hydra vs void rays, and they do own void rays pretty bad. Zerglings too me are good, but i got to work on massing them, i tend to make zerglings and then stop, because it looks like a lot, but in reality i probably needed twice as many. Next time will try zergling tanking Hydras shooting. Protos counter to hydras is colossus, so as long as i dont see one on the field, i should be fine.

by **Matrix** » Fri Feb 04, 2011 1:23 am

Hoping to get out of Bronze soon, just had my 5 wins in a row streak, and finally even on wins and losses tab. I am sure, next few games i will be running into protos first. Did have one protoss today, but he tried to 4gate rush me, and when i mean 4 gate rush me, i mean right outside of my base, and running distance wasnt that great to begin with. I put up few creep crawlers as soon as i saw him spamming those warp gates. Then i sent few speedlings into his base (yes he had no gates in his base and he didnt block the ramp) , defended his first attack and it was gg. Really strange rush.

by **BlottoBot** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 3:21 am

if a proxy gateway is going to work its gotta be 2 gates on 10 outside their base and send the first 2-3 zealots in asap. This still all relies on not being caught though.

by **Matrix** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 3:50 am

hmm didnt know thats how proxy defined. Will keep it in mind.

Fun day today, had a good steak going , i think 8 or 9 wins in a row. then lost to protos, and then zerg of all people, given he was a good zerg who contained me nice in a base when my rush went meh. I am starting to get some silver people once in a while, so far beating them, though i do notice that they are getting harder to beat then the broze league. I can see what little rave was talking about before, it is all about macro. I notice as i focus on macro, micro is more of a distraction at the moment.
Right now up to #3 in my bronze league, and i am guessing if i play alright, i will be moving up. Anyone know science behind moving up a league?

As a side note to get a hang of other races (knowing builds, knowing how to counter them, etc), i started playing more FFA as random. My first game i choose zerg just to try FFA stule. The my second game wnt random....and i got Zerg, muah muah (trombone sound). Actually managed to win that one. Two prottos were at each others throats for a whole game, one was super defensive and had no units left and the other had a crazy amount of carriers, and terran was just bad ( i am kinda surprised carrier guy didnt kill him sooner, since he literally had nothing in terms of defense when i got there, will watch reply since i am curious what was happening on the other side of the map). I over run him with my initial wave after i got changeling in. I was like, no was thats his actual defense.... it was. I overran terran first, then went to closet protos, then went to the last guy. This was most intense fight of the game, because i have never seen so many carriers in my life. I think he had 15 or 20 of them, aghhhh. I had map control and about 6 bases at the time, while all of them were locked in in their own little bases. (the map was one looking like 8 sided star, each side having main and secondary base). First fight with carriers was about 15-20 corupters and about 20-30 mutas. Whiped. i got whiped. Even with corrupt ability and some upgrades such mass of carriers is bruttall. I killed about half carriers, thats microing corrupt ability and mutas. Good thing he got intimidated and didnt push further, i would still probably win ( i had about 17k minerals and 3k gas piled with 200 pop and mining), but the game would have been longer. But he hesitated and pulled back, maybe scared of my creep spread, i was consciously working this game on getting creep spread well. Next wave of coruptors and lins took him apart he had no ground units but towers.

PS: update after watching recording, apparently when i hit that protos base, he was in mid his biggest fight vs carriers. Which explains that he literally had no units. I also completely missed that i didnt finish off that weaker protos base, and apparently he was alive till the end of the game, and i was wondering how is he still in game. I underestimated my encounter forces, he had about 13 cariers i had 11 corruptors and 27 mutas with some roaches to do the tanking on the ground. He recalled his units he had 5 carriers left, i had 4 coruptors and 4 mutas left, i dont hink he could have pushed and probably would have lost those carriers without critical mass. Interesting thing was both protos went for same expansion wing, and one had top half the other had bottom half, ironic part was, the carrier guy could have gone left and would have found 6 spots for a base. I also didnt realize until this game that coruptors do extra dmg vs massive units. Explains why my second wave pretty much wiped carriers out .

by **stessier** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:00 am

Bah - it's been 4 days since I've been able to play due to illness. I'm hoping to get some games in tonight. Hopefully I don't have to do my placement matches all over again...

by **stessier** » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:11 am

Matrix wrote:hmm didnt know thats how proxy defined.

A proxy is really building any building closer to the other person's base than your own base. So those 4 gates were a proxy. Blotto just pointed out what a successful proxy will look like. Building 4 gates that close zaps any type of rush potential and gives you a ton of time to find it.

Anyone know science behind moving up a league?

Everyone has a hidden MMR rating. When you win or lose a match, the system compares your MMR to your opponent's, looks at whether it expected you to win or lose, and then makes an adjustment to your rating. When it matches you with opponents, it is using this hidden MMR to find one's of comparable skill. The rating also has error bars. Finally, there are MMR cutoffs for each league. When your MMR and error bars are within the Silver league, you will get promoted.

It should be noted that the points you are shown have almost nothing to do with your MMR. If you play enough games, they should, overtime, merge to be nearly one in the same, but no one knows how many is "enough." Blizzard has stated that the points are there so people can feel they are making progress even if they never get promoted. The same thing with moving up in your league. You do not have to be Bronze #1 to get promoted to Silver. By the same token, being Bronze #1 does not mean a promotion is imminent.

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