Season 4 Retrospective

Last night my run in Season 4 of the Blizzard Ladder came to an end after 26 games, just short of my goal of 30 games. I was actually expecting to play an hour or two longer, but my lovely and ever responsible wife would not stand for it (I had already played 8 games that night and it was midnight). Which I'm thankful for - it allowed me to get up early today, which is crucial especially for any SC2 casting to happen!

So with that, here are the results and pretty tables!

After Qualifier Final Standing League Silver Silver Rank 100 51 Rank Points 0 146 Bonus Pool 136 223

Matchup Wins Losses Total Win Rate TvP 3 3 0% TvT 1 3 4 25% TvZ 2 2 100% PvP 1 2 3 33% PvT 2 3 5 40% PvZ 2 1 3 66% ZvP 1 1 0% ZvT 2 1 3 66% ZvZ 2 2 0% Total 10 16 26 38% Green background = best match up for race Race Played As Games Random 26

Map Wins Losses Total Win Rate Abyssal Caverns 1 1 100% Xel'Naga Caverns 1 1 100% Antiga Shipyard 3 2 5 60% The Shattered Temple 2 3 5 40% Tal'darim Altar LE 1 3 4 25% Metalopolis 1 4 5 20% Shakuras Plateau 1 4 5 20% Nerazim Crypt - - Green text = map was added for Season 4 Red background = map is removed for Season 5 Opponent's League Wins Losses Total Win Rate Gold 1 1 0% Silver 7 9 16 46% Bronze 3 6 9 33%

Rank - So I just barely missed the top 50, which was a bit disappointing, but given that I was mostly inactive for the season, not unexpected. I have noticed that my rank within the division has been lowering each season: Bronze 12, Silver 23, Silver 26, and now Silver 51. And as you can see, I wasn't able to keep up with the bonus pool accumulation either.

Matchups - It may appear that my Terran and Protoss skills are strong versus Zerg, and my Zerg is now strong against Terran - but I just don't think 2 months is long enough (26 games) to come to any real conclusions (compared to 64 games in Season 3). This is likely aggravated by playing Random. I'm considering picking one race for next season, and focusing on it. I think that would improve my understanding of that race's matchup and help me actually develop some skill.

Maps - At first, I didn't veto any maps - but after Blizzard announced that Abyssal Caverns and Nerazim Crypt would be removed for Season 5, I vetoed them in the map selection - and it was after this point that most of my games were played.

It does appear that I really have trouble with mid-size maps like Metalopolis and Shakuras Plateau. Once players establish their natural expansion, they usually move out - and I think I struggle with expanding to a third while increasing production and maneuvering my army. At this level, expanding and keeping production up is likely more important than army handling - at least according to Budha's SC2 Pyramid, which I'll post about later...

League - I was matched mostly with Silver and upper Bronze players this time - which I think is accurate. After I started playing again later in the season, I think it took Battle.net some time to adjust my MMR to my atrophied skills. I wouldn't be surprised if it places me in upper Bronze next season, but we'll see. You never know!

Friends - One thing that was different this season is I encountered a few players who expressed interest in adding me as a friend on Battle.net. I've never had that happen before! So far I haven't gotten any notification that they've added me - though I've never had character friends (all my friends so far are Real ID friends). So it'll be interesting to see if anything comes of it - perhaps I can help someone else get better by using me as a practice partner :)

So all in all, another good season - and a nice experiment with playing Random. But I really look forward to picking a race to play and to play a bit more consistently next season!