Catching Up

Lately, I've been doing a lot of YouTube uploading with no matching blog posts, so I thought this morning would be a good time for a status update, blog style!

But of course, no blog post would be complete without a few pretty pictures... and what better place to get some than a previous attempt at a status update!

In the days before our second baby boy was born, I was trying to record a video status update while playing a fast 1 vs. Hard AI game, shooting for around 5 minutes in real time.

After several failed attempts, I decided to take screenshots from one of the attempts with the thought I could start a draft post from a PC at the hotel and finish the status update on my iPhone later. I did start a draft and uploaded the pics, but the iPhone-authored post never became a reality, and as you know, much later, I actually did a video status update - using another replay.

But now those screenshots get a 2nd chance!

Game Time 9:03 - PvP on an old map I learned to play SC2 on, Agria Valley - my terrible attempt at a 4-gate. These zealots are actually my 2nd wave of attackers, trying to draw attention away from the probe that's building pylons elsewhere in the base.

Uploading Season 7 and 8

After being distracted by X-COM for more than a week, I have returned to this task and have uploaded the 3rd of these 5 games. I was quite pleased to upload my 1v1 qualifier for Season 7 - I had promised Morphius I would cast it, and it was great to be able to tell him in Battle.net that it was done (after 3 months of waiting!). I am also very excited to start playing again (as the Season 9 ladder locks next week!) and casting more recent games!

Game Time 9:27 - A pylon is finished and I warp in a set of 4 stalkers who start harassing the mineral line, drawing the attention of the forces who dealt with my zealots. I send the probe to the other side of the mineral line.

Ladder Aspirations

I have had some encouragement that I might actually make it out of Silver League! My Platinum League opponent during my 1v1 qualifier for Season 8 said I could get into Gold with a week of playing. And after watching the replay, if he's a typical Platinum player, then yes, with some more confidence in applying pressure and practice knowing when to build drones, I think it's possible - at this level, our mechanics are so inconsistent that careful decision-making could make the difference.

More recently, I was listening to an interview with Sasquatch, a player in the Complexity Academy (the B-team for the Complexity professional team), and he said that if you're in Bronze, if you play 2 hours a day, you'll make it to Masters. Really? Is that all it takes?

His general advice for lower league players - play a lot more and pick just one strategy per match-up. If you play infrequently and try to do something different each game, you'll never get better.

Surprisingly, I've been thinking along the same lines. My intention with mouse-only play with baby is to focus on a single build. I really want to work on my map awareness, and using only one build should allow me to focus more attention around the map instead of in my base!

Game Time 9:39 - My stalkers hold on just long enough for a second batch of fresh troops to get warped in and the scale tips in my favor.

A New Game, An Old Game & X-Split

After reading about "Let's Play" videos (videos of people playing through a game with commentary), I've decided to do a "blind" Let's Play of X-COM: Enemy Unknown. Since my intention is to capture my first impressions, it may not end up being a Let's Play in the strictest sense - in that I likely won't finish the game! But I thought playing as far as I can on a first try might be fun.

As part of this, I'm hoping to do a "context" video of the original X-COM, and since it doesn't use Direct3D, I'm going to use X-Split to capture the video and audio (Fraps only captures Direct3D video). Now the cool part is that X-Split is very popular with streamers and live casters - its main strength is live streaming - that it can record as well is a secondary feature.

So my diversion into XCOM may play a part in me using some more advanced tools for casting SC2 - and perhaps a step towards some low resolution streaming?

Game Time 9:44 - In the split-second chaos, the Hard AI focuses on the fresh stalkers, allowing my damaged ones to survive, giving me a numbers advantage. Soon after, his offensive forces return from attacking my base, but I warp in stalkers at another pylon in the base, and with some kiting, stave off the zealot portion of the force while sustaining minimal damage, and the Hard AI surrenders.

Bandwidth

With all these plans, I'm trying to keep aware of my limited bandwidth - both in regards to my free time and my Internet bandwidth!

With my current schedule, I typically get 1-2 hours of time in the early morning with baby and about 3-4 hours of uploading time - with my DSL connection, that results in being able to upload about 15-20 minutes of 1080p video.

At first glance, that length limit may seem terribly short, but I think it fits my current life stage well. I'm in no rush with any of this, and want to keep the balance on the fun side and away from the second job side...

My original premise with the blog and casting was that with just a bit more time, I could take something I already do (play games and watch replays) and turn it into content. And with my tendency to expand scope (as I've already done), it helps to remind myself of this original intention.

Speakimg of such, wow, this post sort of exploded size-wise! Perhaps I should focus on shorter, more frequent posting as well? ;-)

XCOM: Enemy Unknown Unboxing!

It took me some time, but I've finally uploaded my first unboxing video!

It's a bit delayed, but such is the life of a gamer dad with a newborn baby :)

I bought the game with my wife and 2 older kids the day after release (Wednesday Oct 10), recorded the unboxing Friday night (Oct 12), installed the game early Saturday morning (Oct 13), and edited and produced the video in the early morning yesterday (Wednesday Oct 17).

Besides my older son's birthday and party last Sunday (Oct 14), much of the delay has been due to playing MANY hours of the original game, X-COM: UFO Defense, with my baby boy - ok, and a some sleeping too :) He is quickly becoming my X-COM buddy, more than following in the SC2 footsteps of his older brother!

Now the funny thing is, I've yet to actually play the new game! But I'm hoping to record my first impressions live with my baby boy. I think it'll be a fun time, especially since our experience with the original game is very fresh in our minds!

Although I hope to do some more posts about the trip to Best Buy with the kids, my reflections on the original game, etc., I am still very much a StarCrafter!

X-COM is a really fun game, and I'm guessing XCOM will be too - but SC2 is a competitive sport! And as such, it has an appeal that a single-player game just can't capture.

I have produced the videos of the first 2 games of Season 7, and would have uploaded them, but I wanted to get the unboxing video up as soon as it was done. (There is a timeliness to the appeal of an unboxing video!)

I've some thoughts on my approach to my ladder games and competitive play - but that'll have to wait for the next blog post - time for me to sneak in some sleep while baby is sleeping and before everyone else in the house wakes up!

First Video Status Update!

As promised in my last post introducing baby Caleb, here is an update on where things are at on this blog and my YouTube channel and my plans for the next few months - especially given my new nighttime schedule!

And for those of you that would rather read than watch, here's the summary:

• I have cast both showmatches, Ethereal511's 2v2 submission, and all 10 games played in Season 6 of the Blizzard 1v1 Ladder (2012 Season 1). (Special blog note: I do plan on doing blog posts for each of these. If you can't wait, check out the YouTube channel - otherwise, be assured they will trickle in!)
• I have also cast all 4 games from Season 7 and my single game from Season 8. These games haven't been produced/encoded yet, but I hope to upload them in the next week.
• For the next 4-6 weeks, I'll be playing SC2 with baby Caleb in the very early morning with only the mouse - and will be trying 1v1 in addition to 4v4!
• I might do some videos of a game I just bought with the kids - X-COM Enemy Unknown!
• After Caleb starts sleeping longer and I get time in the evening to cast, I still hope to cast all of the games played by the Colorado School of Mines in Season 5 of the Collegiate StarLeague (CSL). (I'll actually cast less than the 66 mentioned in the video - not all the replays were available.)
• Season 6 of the CSL will start in November, but it's not clear yet what opportunities community casters like me will have... now that they have a big, international sponsor!

Well, it's past my bedtime - see you guys in the next blog post!

New Baby Boy!

Yes, as you might have guessed, I have someone new to the StarCraft scene to introduce to you!

Please give a warm welcome to my new son Caleb! He was born on Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 1:33pm! He weighed 8 pounds and 5 ounces and was 21 inches long!

[Sept 29] Baby Caleb warming up under a heat lamp thingy after getting cleaned up.

The delivery went very well, and he and his mom are doing great - we've been home since Sunday and are settling into our newborn baby lifestyle!

[Sept 30] A very proud StarCraft dad with his new baby boy. Caleb and I got to show our Zerg pride the evening after his birth and the next day. I got lots of smiles from the maternity staff - guessing it was due to my beaming grin rather than my choice of t-shirt :)

When my first son, Isaac, was born, I brought a netbook which somehow happened to have the StarCraft 1 BattleChest installed - I have no idea how that happened... ;-) So we actually played our first StarCraft game together at the hospital (I picked random race and got Zerg!).

This time, I didn't have a netbook, but I did have an iPhone! So I found a StarCraft 2 memory game in the iOS AppStore, and Caleb and I played a bit of that and read about some Zerg build orders on TeamLiquid.net. (We also played some Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies which I bought while at the hospital.)

[Sept 30] Yes, I know Anakin's creepy later on - but in Episode I, he was a cute, innocent kid.

Caleb also got his first Star Wars action figure at the hospital, just like his older brother - who got a Luke Skywalker in Endor camouflage!

Admittedly, for Isaac, it was hopeful thinking on my part as we didn't know whether he was going to be a boy or girl - so it was different this time knowing that a boy would be coming.

And yes, I know there are cooler Star Wars characters than kid padawan Anakin - but I had already decided to give Isaac Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi for his upcoming birthday (I forgot to get him an action figure on his 1st birthday!) - and thought little Anakin was a good fit for the occasion.

[Sept 30] Isn't this adorable? He's my little guy! (I'm referring to the baby, not the space marine - although he's kinda cute too.)

Of course, no newborn photo-taking would be complete without some StarCraft product placement ;-) That's a StarCraft 2 space marine bottle cap figurine I got from the BlizzCon 2011 online sale. I thought about bringing my Hydralisk figurine, but felt it was too scary-looking for a baby boy - I hadn't taken a good look at it until now. A space marine seemed more appropriate! But don't worry - I will still be playing Zerg on the online ladder with Caleb!

As you might suspect, we have a lot more uber-cute pictures of baby Caleb - but I'll save those for the family blog :)

For those of you dying for more StarCraft on this blog, I will be posting an update about the state of this blog and the channel soon - where it's going and what's coming up.

I do have a new night life now (I have the graveyard shift, so lots of late night time with Caleb), so it'll be interesting to see what content I can produce with him on the blog and channel!

(And yes, for those of you long-time blog readers, this is the first time I've shown my face on this blog - it was such a nice photo and a special father-son event, I couldn't resist!)

He's Almost Here!

Well, this is it! After 39 weeks of waiting, our baby boy is almost here!

We've been busy getting his room and our home ready for his arrival, packing our bags and gearing ourselves up for the sleepless nights - and waiting.

These last two weeks have been a lot of anxious waiting as my first son came super fast at 39 weeks (total labor was just over 2 hours - and our hospital is a 45-minute drive away!) - so I was half-expecting things to start moving at any moment!

But it looks like this little guy is taking his time! So instead of speeding down the interstate at midnight (like we did for my first son), we're staying overnight in a nearby hotel - much to my wife's relief!

I may even get to blog some tonight ;-)

Here's a little montage of his latest ultrasound pictures, from when we found out he was a boy to the last ultrasound we did 2 weeks ago. It can be hard to see him - especially in the later ones, he was running out of space in there!

19 Weeks: He's a boy! (the profile of his head is on the left)

25 Weeks (his face is on the right, laying down, looking at us - I think this is his best ultrasound picture!)

29 Weeks (his face is on the right, on his back looking up)

33 Weeks (arrows point to his nose and lips - he's looking straight at us, his eyes in the shadows)

37 Weeks (on his back looking up, his lips on the left - he's nestled in there pretty tight!)

I'm super-excited to meet him face-to-face and look forward to spending lots of time with him - and of course, playing some mouse-only 4v4 with him on the Blizzard ladder in the middle of the night!

His big brother and I got into Silver League in about a month (almost 2 years ago!), and I've not played any 4v4 since then, so I get to start from scratch and play all 5 qualifier games again with this little guy!

Ok, time to get rolling, say goodbye to my co-workers, and start my long, sleepless weekend!

28 Tweets, 5 Videos, 1 Blog Post

Well it's been almost 3 weeks since my "I'm back!" post, and despite the lack of posting, I have produced some results - 28 tweets and 5 published casts!

I also qualified into Silver for Season 8 (2012 Season 3), though I must say that the game was quite the embarrassment... don't worry, you'll get to see it in all it's glory when I eventually cast it!

I've enjoyed tweeting on Twitter - it has done exactly what I hoped it would - provide an quick way for me to send updates and small thoughts, and keep some activity on the blog between posts.

Right now it's been a lot of tweets about my work casting, producing videos, and how I really need to catch up on the blog!

On the video side, it's been an adventure - I've been doing work of some sort on videos pretty much every day I think.

It took me around a week to produce Game 1 of that showmatch vs. RaZe, but the result was awesome. I think it rivals the Welcome Back video as far as production complexity and definitely in the hurdles to make it come together. You can see the entire showmatch on YouTube now, but I will also be doing a blog post for the showmatch - and some tricks I learned about uploading to YouTube!

Over a few days I finished casts of my showmatch with the QuailGang YouTube channel - and started a practice of trying to do the segments of a video (intro, game, closing) in one take - a crucial practice if I hope to cast with any regularity.

After that I cast Ethereal's 2v2 and then 2 ladder games, all in about an hour. The next night I cast another ladder game. But afterwards, felt in the rush to start a backlog of videos (so I could post from the backlog after my son is born), I missed the intent of the ladder casts - reflection on my play/strategy in preparation of playing Zerg in the current season.

So I'll be re-doing those casts, starting with my 1v1 qualifier tonight - I will be uploading it after this post!

So I'm a bit behind on the blog - but it's an exciting time - both on the SC2 side and at home, with a new baby coming in the VERY near future!

GosuDad is Back!

After a long break from posting, and an even longer break from casting videos, I am back!

For those that don't like watching videos, here's a summary of what's going on:

1. I am back to blogging and casting!
2. I have a bunch of casting coming up:
   • Two showmatches - one against RaZe, one against Aaron from the QuailGang casting trio.
   • My first 2v2 cast - sent by Ethereal511
   • 10 games from Season 6 of the online ladder - my final games as Terran!
   • 4 games from Season 7 - my first games as Zerg!
   • Games from Season 8 - continuing to play as Zerg
   • Games from Season 5 of the Collegiate StarLeague - capturing some Colorado e-Sports history!
3. Lots of shout-outs to my YouTube subscribers, blog readers, my wife and kids, and a random kid I met at Benihana's
4. I am now tweeting on Twitter as GosuDad!

So there you have it, I'm not dead - but rather getting back into grassroots e-Sports :)

And yes, this is the 2nd time that I have refuted rumors of my death - the guys at QuailGang were concerned about me earlier this spring!

And the Winner is...

After much delay, I am proud to share with the StarCraft world that my third child will be...

A BOY!

He is at 19 weeks in this picture - you can see his left forearm (on the left) and that blur above his head is his right hand - clearly some serious APM going on there ;-)

And as I promised on my last blog post, since he's a boy, I will be playing Zerg for Season 7 and going for a third hatchery (base) in EVERY game!

So shortly (maybe next week?) I'll be looking at this screen and getting ready to hit the Find Match button!

I haven't played Zerg on the ladder since December 19, 2011 - so I'm a bit rusty with Zerg, rustier than the normal rusty I am with Terran ;-)

My son and I have been playing a few Zerg games against a Hard computer AI (my son on his "play" keyboard and me standing behind him using a wireless mouse on a bookshelf) and from the results, I can tell that this will be an interesting season to be sure!

Girl or Boy?

Tomorrow my wife and I are going to our next baby appointment and finding out whether we'll be having a baby girl or baby boy this fall. I've asked my Facebook friends what their guesses are - and it seemed like I should do something for the blog :)

So here it is - rather than definitively playing Protoss for Season 7 (as had been my previous plan) - my choice of SC2 race will be determined by our next baby's gender!

(I figured boys were more into goopy things.)

In addition, in honor of our third child, I'll strive to always build a third base (Nexus or Hatchery) before the end of every game! (Which, if we're having a girl will be interesting to do as Protoss...)

And yes, there is a chance our baby will be particularly squirmy and the ultrasound technician won't be able to determine the gender... in which case, I'll have to play Random!

Going For A Third

I've been meaning to post this several weeks ago, but as you'll see, life has been very busy for me this last month ;-)

From the title, you might think this post will be about when to pursue a third base in a game of competitive StarCraft 2.

And indeed, below is a screenshot of a third base being built in a game I played late last night against the computer on Very Hard difficulty.

But upon closer inspection, you'll notice that the Nexus is almost halfway complete - 437 of 1000 hit points to be exact.

437 of 1000 is equivalent to 17.5 of 40...

Now change the unit of measurement from hit points to weeks...

And you guessed it - I am very pleased to share with my SC2 friends that my wife and I are expecting our third child!

The baby's due date is October 5th, and today we are at about 17.5 weeks (out of 40). The baby was at 13 weeks in this ultrasound and next week, we'll be finding out whether the baby is a boy or girl!

We shared the good news with our families and close friends at the beginning of the month, and the rest of the month has been a whirlwind of activity!

From filing last minute taxes to taking both kids to a Cars-themed birthday party (by myself! 2 vs 1!) to baby appointments to burrito/wings eating contests to My Little Pony (Friendship is Magic!) to iPhones to breaking and replacing a CPU fan to buying and building Ikea furniture, life has been packed this month!

Needless to say, I now have a massive blog post backlog - including many, many thoughts on SC2 and eSports - so be prepared for some serious blogging - (and cross fingers!) some video casting :)

Fashionably Late

I was going to post last week about the upcoming Season 6 ladder lock, but as you might guess, time has ran away from me. And last night, I suddenly found myself at the end of Monday night, the last evening before the ladder lock, without having even played my qualifier game!

So I told my wife I'd play just one game - and hit the big yellow button. Surprisingly, Battle.net was having some trouble finding me a match, and seeing the following message made me wonder exactly what I was in for...

Finally it found someone, and the loading screen wasn't clarifying either...

Oddly, there was no indication whether we were evenly matched, or whether one of us was favored to win. I wasn't sure if I had ever encountered this before - but guessing from my opponent's profile picture, I predicted I was in for a loss.

I won't spoil exactly how the game went - having not played on the ladder in 7 weeks, it was an experience! And I'll try to cast it later, but the resulting placement was a surprise!

So I'm apparently in Silver again!

And since that was indeed the only game I played that night, I am locked into Silver League for Season 6 - regardless of how terrible I do for the next week before the season ends next Tuesday :)

A lot has been going on this last week (which I'll definitely expound about later!) and I've been tired and unable to focus on SC2 work - and just today have apparently come down with a yucky cold!

But I'm camped out in the basement armed with a humidifier and a big box of kleenex (and hoping my wife will get some sleep!) - which also happens to be my SC2 office... so I'll be playing ONE ladder game after I publish this post - wish me luck :)

Still Alive (And Causing A Ruckus!)

Don't believe the rumors - I am still alive, still crazy about SC2, and yes, still have grand intentions to publish more content - and play in Season 6 of the online ladder ;-)

However, these last three weeks have been filled with other activity, including hunting XBox360 Achievements in the Zombie mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops, go-karting, taking care of sick kids, chatting with my wife about all sorts of things, passing out on the floor (apparently loudly snoring), eBay-ing for the first Diablo game, finding a new favorite local GameStop, and most recently, hosting my first StarCraft 2 watching party at my house (which was a grand success!).

So be expecting some future posts chronicling those adventures (ok, maybe not the sick kids part).

Ruckus-wise, I apparently started one with my comment concerning web crawlers in my last post, 1000 Views.

Not only did that post generate the most comments (by far) - but it is very close to the most viewed post on the blog (views of that specific post, not including hits on the main page). For those of you that commented on that post, please check out the post again for my replies :)

As it turns out I have several followers in Spain and Mexico, and their comments (despite being offended by my web-crawler remark) I found greatly encouraging - and make me wonder if all those hits from Russia really are real-life readers...

So a BIG thank you (and apologies) to my international readers - and I look forward to your comments, as I duck behind the sofa ;-)

1000+ Views!

About two weeks ago (Feb 20th), I logged into Blogger and glanced at the stats for the GosuDad blog and saw this:

Now admittedly, likely the 1000th or at least the 1001st page view was myself. And quite likely a chunk of the total views are from some web crawlers - it seems like there's one in Russia and some from various Spanish-speaking countries.

And given how long the blog has been running (almost 8 months), that's only about 4 hits a day.

But besides all those factors - I was still quite excited :)

I have really enjoyed writing posts (and doing the "homework" for them), and it's encouraging to see that others are enjoying what's published! Looking at the stats today, we're over 1100 views!

So a big thanks to all of you readers out there and especially those who have left comments - your interactions really add to the little corner of SC2 where people blog about their favorite e-Sport :)

Season 6 Goals - The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown

As usual, my goals post is over 2 weeks into the season! I was quite excited the Friday after the start of the season (Feb 17) to do this post and enter Season 6 in a flurry!

But between catching up with housework in the evenings and preparing for a Dance Central 2 showdown with CmdrTallon's wife on Saturday Feb 25, time and energy have been short for SC2.

But we are here at last, and let me tell you, the gauntlet has been thrown!

Last weekend, I read a quote from an entrepreneur in Inc. magazine that "If you have more than 3 priorities, you have no priorities."

Given my limited time/energy, and that gauntlet I mentioned earlier, I felt this saying (which I've heard before I think) was quite relevant. So here we go!

(Note: There are about 5.5 weeks left in the season, so I calibrated my goals to that timeframe.)

1. Exercise for 30 min 6 times a week = 16.5 hours

• The gauntlet was thrown by my family doctor, who instructed me on Feb 17 that if my cholesterol doesn't improve, she's going to send me to a nutritionist. Disregarding that in our current state of healthcare in the US, my doctor can't force me to do anything, I took this as my gauntlet (or her gauntlet I guess). Of course, I'll need to focus on my diet as well - but this part is more fun ;-)

2. Do a produced sportscast-style cast once a week = 6 casts

• For many months, I've wanted to do sportscast-style casts with some more production values. Last season I opted to do a casual review style for my ladder games. Although I think was a great choice in regards to content I want regularly on my YouTube channel and blog, it gave little time towards those more involved posts. I have several showmatches lined up between myself and others, and would like to do this style for those casts - not to mention CSL casts (whose season is starting to draw to a close!).

3. Blog once a week = 6 posts

• Although I enjoy casting, it can lead to an absence of non-video blog posts, where I can talk about my life "around" SC2 - the thoughts and experiences that take place outside an actual game session. I think is the strength of the blog format, and hope to put just a bit of focus on it this season.

So there you go, 3 priorities. And I do hope to do some ladder/learning casting this season. But I felt that train/habit was well on it's way last season, and these 3 areas needed focusing - after all...

THE GAUNTLET HAS BEEN THROWN!

Season 5 Goals - Results

No season would be complete without a look at how I fared against my season goals!

My Season 5 Goals post was my last post in 2011, and I didn't play much SC2 or blog or cast until well into the new year - so I'm not too hopeful that I reached many of my goals...

(As I predicted, Season 5 ended on February 13th, so the length of the season was indeed 8 weeks. I think this will be standard from here on out.)

1. Play 40 ladder games (5 per week)

I only played 22 games this season - and I don't think I ever hit 5 games a week, even in my busiest weeks. But, as far as consistency, I did much better. Last season I think over half of my games were in the last two days of the season - whereas these games were spread out fairly evenly over maybe 5-6 weeks. I'd like to improve in this area, but given my schedule lately, I don't think I can play, review and cast more than a few games a week.

2. Lose 5 lbs from the beginning of Season 5 (XX3.6 lbs).

My weight on Feb 14 was xx3.2 lbs., so basically no progress there (hehe, no I didn't lose some multiple of 10 lbs ;-) I think over the holidays I gained 4 lbs, so I suppose getting back to pre-holiday weight is good. But as you'll see in my next goals post, this area needs a serious reboot...

3. Blog more regularly - 24 posts (3 per week)

If you count all posts up until the season retrospective, I did 24 posts, 12 in January and 12 in February. If you only count up until Feb 14, it's 22. So either way, that's pretty good. Once I started posting in January, I was posting almost every day - which was much more than I had originally hoped for! Most of the posts were video-related, which rolls nicely into the next goal...

4. Cast more often - 8 games (1 per week)

This is the one goal I actually excelled at! I casted 24 videos, casting about 77% of my games played (17 games). Back in my goals post, I said success would hinge on my ability to get up early - back then I was casting in our family room. A lot has changed since then - with my new casting desk in the basement, casting has become much more convenient. I also mentioned that "letting go of perfectionist tendencies" would be key. And I was right! This season I went for a more casual feel, casting games live and casting replays in a personal review sort of style. I think this is more in line with my original idea for the blog and casting - turning my normal SC2 activities into content. Although I still wish to do more produced content - for the CSL, showmatches with other players and casters, etc. - I think the personal, intelligent, yet novice-level analysis is something different that I can bring to the scene. That and family-friendly content - that is a rarity online for sure!

Whew, only one more post to do before I start Season 6 - goals!

Season 5 Retrospective

It's that time again - time to slap together some tables and reflect on another season of the 1v1 ladder!

	After Qualifier	Final Standing
League	Bronze	Bronze
Rank	80	25
Rank Points	0	356
Bonus Pool	28	155

Rank

I always find this statistic odd. I was very surprised to get top 25 in my division, especially given how few games I played. Even in Bronze league, most players at the top of the division have won A LOT of games - and likewise have played even more games total!

I could do a whole blog post on the workings of the ladder rank (and still hope to)...

But for now, let's just observe that apparently when I was demoted to Bronze, I was demoted far far down the ladder. Almost all my games this season were played against favored opponents, which increases the rank points gained from winning and decreases the points lost from losing. I also always had bonus pool available, so I always got double rank points from winning.

Both of those combined with a fairly decent win-rate (although in my opinion a very temporary win-rate) and playing a small number of games (less exposure to risk of losing) led to a lot of points!

Matchup Wins Losses Total Win Rate TvP 2 3 5 40% TvT 9 2 11 82% TvZ 2 2 4 50% PvT 1 1 2 50% Total 14 8 22 64 % Green = best match up for race Race Played As Games Terran 20 Protoss 2

Match-ups & Race I found this very weird. I suspect that Terran is fairly popular with casual players as it is in some ways, the easiest race to understand - so that might explain the high Terran numbers. My Terran win-rate is less explanable. Perhaps it had to do with those externally triggered timing pushes? Casual Terran players are more likely to hole up in their base and hope for a long game - and those massive all-ins were simply not expected. I used BYOB for most of my games as well, and I don't think most players expect banshees in a unit composition against Terran - or banshees in general. I've always had trouble against Zerg and Protoss - especially with upper Bronze or Silver league players (as you'll know from previous seasons!). Those players know how to use banelings and upgrades. I am so excited to start playing Protoss next season!

Map Wins Losses Total Win Rate Entombed Valley 4 2 6 67% Antiga Shipyard 3 2 5 60% Arid Plateau 2 1 3 67% Xel'Naga Caverns 2 1 3 67% Shakuras Plateau - 2 2 0% Tal'darim Altar LE 2 - 2 100% The Shattered Temple 1 - 1 100% Metalopolis - - - 0% Green text = map was new for Season 5 Red background = map removed for Season 6

Maps I ordered these by number of games played, and the results were interesting. Every player can veto 3 maps (I don't veto any). My suspicion is that many players veto the 2-player maps, and one of the older maps (The Shattered Temple or Metalopolis). This would lean the map pool towards newer, 4-player maps. As for my performance on each map, I really don't think I played enough games to draw any conclusions. As the maps get better, the less likely one-base all-ins and cheese like drone rushes will succeed. I am really looking forward to the new 2-player maps in Season 6 though - both were community-created maps (not Blizzard) and were chosen for their tournament worthiness. There should be some awesome macro games coming up!

Opponent's League Wins Losses Total Win Rate Gold 2 1 3 67% Silver 7 3 10 70% Bronze 4 4 8 50% Qualifier 1 - 1 100%

League Ok, there have been lots of surprises so far - but this one REALLY surprised me. My last season was filled with low win-rates against all leagues, and so my high rate against Silver players was a big shocker. One change from previous seasons is that most of my games were played before the ladder lock. I have a feeling that many of my Bronze opponents in previous seasons were up and coming Silver players. But who knows? Maybe I'm actually getting better? Hard to say - though I do believe that this indicates I'm at least a high Bronze player, if not low Silver.

Well, that about does it - all-in-all it was a great season, and a nice parting experience playing Terran!

BYOB: You're Full of Surprises

Since my final Terran ladder game on Monday, I've been pondering some aspects of that game - particularly the progression of the handful of army engagements.

Despite it being very late last night, I really wanted to get this review done and uploaded - one more step towards finishing out Season 5 and moving on to Season 6. Well, that and my wife had just started another episode of The Office, and I was waiting for laundry to finish - so I had some time :)

So some interesting things to keep in mind when I start playing against Terrans as Protoss next season! Now for a few retrospective posts and a goals post for Season 6!

BYOB's Final Stand

Monday night I played my last Bring Your Own Banshee game in Season 5 - vs a slightly favored Protoss player. In typical BYOB fashion, I had to try to end the game at a particular time, but it was a spectacular end to a good season!

So that was fun - despite the outcome - and I look forward to reviewing the replay as part of my end-of-the-season activities. And yes, I really look forward to switching to Protoss for Season 6!

Xel'Naga Surprise

Last night, I played quite possibly my last 1v1 ladder game on the classic map, Xel'Naga Caverns. This map has been in the ladder pool since beta, so SC2 players (those with the beta at least) have been playing on this map for 2 years!

I was excited to have a chance to play on this map - I rarely saw it this season - I suspect most players are vetoing it.

And I was matched against a Zerg, another rare occurrence for me this season. So I was excited to get into the game.

So yeah. Perhaps this explains why this map gets vetoed a lot and is being replaced in Season 6!

Although I'm quite far from my original goal of playing 40 games this season (I'm at 21 now), I look forward to playing my last games in Season 5 tonight!

Right now, I'm rank 24 in my division - which is already more than I expected at the beginning of the season, when I was demoted back down into Bronze League. I hope to cast a few of the games live - at least my last game of the evening - so it'll be a fun time :)

Standard in Silver

After winning so many games, it was only a matter of time before my match-making rating (MMR) rose high enough that I would start to encounter solid standard play. Apparently that time arrived two nights ago.

It was late, and I had just played a few 2 vs AI games with a co-worker. I decided to play 1 ladder game before calling it a night. My opponent turned out to be a highly ranked Silver league player - and his play was solid and standard, something I haven't seen in a while!

Although I lost, this is quite a turning point. Battle.net considered me evenly matched with tofool - does this mean my skill is improving back up to that Silver league level? Season 6 starts in a few days, so I guess we'll find out soon enough!

Defense: Banshees Optional

Last Tuesday, I got to play against a Protoss on the 1v1 ladder - a rarity apparently at my level!

The outcome of the game itself was a surprise to me - as at some point, I decided my banshees weren't needed for base defense...

So upon review, it was the execution of base ramp attacks and the consistency of unit production that shaped the final outcome.

Now whether I'll remember that for next time is another thing - as you'll see in my next cast!

Nukes!

Two days ago, I played my first 1v1 game without an external deadline, and this Terran vs Terran game really showcased a variety of Terran scenarios.

Unfortunately, the game was also super long! I tried to speed things up - but as usual, there's so much that you can learn from a single replay!

As much as I love macro games, I hope this isn't indicative of every TvT I play this week. I had a goal of playing 40 1v1 games this season, and although I doubt I'll make it, long TvT macro games won't help - especially since Bronze seems to be filled with Terrans!

Army Swap and Hero SCVs

After a humiliating defeat at the hands of a drone rush, I return to my economy/production focus in BYOB for this TvT on what seems like a favorite map, Entombed Valley.

Another short game with some discussion of the suitability of ladder play for practice, armies passing each other mid-map, and yet again, another moment for the unlikely heroes in the mineral line to show their mettle!

Tonight (Monday) is the last night for Season 5 before the ladder lock, so I'm looking forward to playing a few games later tonight.

Will I be able to win a bunch and get promoted to Silver before the lock? Doubtful ;-)

Handling A Drone Rush

I've only faced a drone rush twice before on the 1v1 ladder, and I think both times were before I started blogging!

But there I was last night, minding my own business in Bronze League, hoping to play a short game, and pow - drone rush!

Despite the embarrassing loss, hopefully we have all learned some new tricks or understanding to use when defending against a drone rush!

Like a Butterfly

Last night, as hoped for, I did a review of my game against Goroth. Like a butterfly flapping its wings, the addition of the early barracks to BYOB eventually had a large affect on the outcome of the game.

I was surprised how close the game could have been had I not been forced to do an all-in attack at the end. It does make me wonder how the outcome would have changed if I hadn't been in so much of a rush to end the game. That many banshees can really turn the tide of a game if used carefully!

BYOB Disruption

Today was a snow day - and I try to play a quick game before the day gets rolling!

Going for a double barracks opening leads to disruption in the BYOB economy and hilarity ensues.

At least it didn't last very long...

Goroth actually messaged me immediately afterwards - he asked why I didn't cloak. And the short answer is, well, I didn't research it!

Not that it mattered, he had me good - and it'll make for an interesting review tonight...

Marine, Marauder... Banshee?

After almost a week since playing 1v1 on the ladder, I hit the Find Match button yesterday morning and wanted to try something a little different.

Not a big different, just a little different.

Continuing to play with BYOB, I wanted to see how substituting marauders for the tanks would change the composition. I think marauders are a little more flexible, especially in the early game.

I found myself playing against a fully favored opponent - and yep, you guessed it, he was a Terran!

At this point, I'm convinced that having air units for visibility when attacking up a ramp is super valuable. It doesn't hurt if the air units can attack ground units as well ;-)

With the game being so short, I figured I could do a quick review as well. So today is a double feature!

Yes, those are my little zerglings at the end, and yes, that was my first published casting blooper!

I usually have a few false starts before a review, and have lately been deleting them immediately. I forgot I hadn't deleted this one. It completely surprised me and got a few laughs, so I figured I should include it. Now you can't just jump into a blooper right away after a cast, but luckily I had some cute SC2 footage with the kids!

A Third Look

Believe it or not, one of my previous opponents, Alien***kick, found my videos of our game on YouTube and commented!

He was wondering how he lost the tremendous lead he had at the beginning of the game, and after watching my live cast and my posted review, I realized that there was still some exploring to do on his side of the game.

Yesterday morning I recorded a review, but it was over 30 minutes! So last night, I recorded a shorter, faster version - which brings me up to 5 recordings of this particular game! (I only posted 3 of them.)

So a mixture of production, knowledge, and army control issues allowed me back into the game - but by far, the lesson to be learned is: when your armies are even, don't run into a sieged tank line!

So with that, I consider the book closed on this game!

Taking a Brief Break

These last 2 weeks have been quite busy for me Starcraft-wise. From Saturday January 14 to Friday January 27, I recorded 11 videos and published 11 blog posts.

Two weekends ago, I started work on a computer program to help me create the summary and intro clips for my upcoming CSL casts. Last week, I tried to start interacting with subscribers and commenters on YouTube. And a few days ago, I got permission from Blizzard to use assets from the game and soundtrack in my videos (with some qualifications of course)!

Last week was also an adventure on the daddy side of things!

My daughter started potty training, we confirmed that we had at least one raccoon living in our attic, and apparently my hefty son has lost a pound since his last pediatrician appointment. So we now have a one-way door installed on the roof (thanks to a wildlife control company) and my son now has full snacking privileges for the next six weeks!

So as you might guess, by last Friday evening, I was ready for a break from the 1v1 ladder!

CmdrTallon had been bemoaning losses to the Protoss Four-Gate, so I offered to do some practice games with him. I believe this is the first time I've done this sort of thing - played custom games with someone to work on a specific part of the game.

We did 4 games of four-gate, once on Shattered Temple, and three games on Tal'Darim Altar. By the last one, he did an excellent job of shutting down my proxy pylon before it even finished.


Time: 6:48 - Two marauders and one marine kite my two advance zealots, and I'm forced to cancel my pylon and pull back.

At this point, I changed my focus to expanding - which I suppose was against the rules for a practice session focused on 4-gate... and ten minutes later, we had a large engagement which characterized the rest of the game.


Time: 16:48 - This large force of marauders struggles to push up the ramp against charge-lots, guardian shield, stalkers, and immortals.

After that, it was time for something less, um, intense. So we played two 2 vs. AI co-op matches, and won :)

Then, I'm not sure how this happened, but we rounded off the night with my first ever custom map game (the mod style of custom map) - Blizzard's "Left 2 Die"!


The basic concept is that play is divided into timed Day and Night modes. During the day, you take your forces out to kill infested terran buildings and earn points for enabling new units. During the night, you run back to your base to defend against a steady stream of infested units and large mutated zerg units!


Time: 4:07 - Night 1, 2:27 left - Our first night, and you can see why a Nazi zombie fan would like this custom map!


Time: 4:35 - Night 1, 1:59 left - The zombies (er, infested Terrans) are in the base! Here, one of the mutated Zerg units is leaping from his previous kill to slice up a marine. Who says SC2 isn't dramatic?


Time: 6:33 - Night 1, 0:01 left - With infested Terrans all over the base, these two marines are about to bite the dust.


Time: 6:36 - Day 1, 3:58 left - Moments later, they are saved! Daytime starts, and the infested Terrans explode into flames! Time to rebuild the base!


Time: 11:54 - Night 2, 2:40 left - The second night begins, and we encounter some nasty mutated Zerg units - this one explodes into a massive ball of acid when killed!


Time: 13:49 - Night 2, 0:45 left - The night is almost over, but the infested Terrans break through a wall of debris, entering an undefended area of the base! Thankfully, my vultures had carpeted the area with spider mines. Since I haven't played the SC2 single-player yet, I had never played with vultures in SC2 to this point - they are wicked awesome!


Time: 26:07 - Day 3, 0:27 left - The next night is about to start, and my infantry are healing up. That's right, that white infantry unit is healing a marauder! Meet another cool unit not available in standard multiplayer, the medic!


Time: 28:21 - Night 4, 2:14 left - Another massive mutated zerg unit, the Stank - basically a huge ultralisk, but not the balanced version from multiplayer! See the little swirlies on some of the units (even the bunker!)? It's a status effect placed on units that are THROWN by one of the Stank's attacks. And yes, that's a TON of defensive units :)

As you can tell, this was SUPER fun!

So much so, that I played a round on Saturday night, a round on Sunday night, and a few half-played rounds in between. Is this as addicting as Nazi zombies? Close, but not quite. Now had Blizzard tied more achievements to it (like for finishing X games per difficulty like they do for normal Custom games) or some sort of high score system, I would find it a huge distraction from playing competitive 1v1 ;-)

So I had a nice break over the weekend, and now it's time to get back into casting and preparing content for the CSL!

Lessons From A Protoss

Last night I did a review of my first BYOB game versus a Protoss, and we learn some things about assaulting ramps and keeping production structures busy - from both players.

(I also try casting again as "CuePhoenix, your gosu dad")




One of the things I love about StarCraft 2 is that at all levels of play, there's something to learn from your replays. There's always room for improvement, and you can learn so many things about the game just by watching your own play!

First TvP with BYOB

Last night (Tuesday) I got to play a bunch of SC2. First, I played 3 games of 2-player co-op w/ CmdrTallon (my wife was watching Hoarders and then Cake Boss in the background!).

After midnight, while waiting for some laundry, I played a quick 1v1 on the ladder. This time, BYOB flexes its muscles against a Protoss player - and of course, there has to be an external timing, and this time I keep to it!



Despite his Gold league status, I later learned that my opponent was new to the game (or at least his account was), he had only won 7 league games. It's possible this was one of his qualifier games.

Regardless, I'm interested in doing a review - you can learn things even from a simple game.

Analyzing BYOB (Bring Your Own Base?)

Last Sunday afternoon I did my 1st review of my game against Alien***kick, but the review was a bit long and one of my YouTube subscribers pointed something out that I wanted to investigate.

So last night I casted a 2nd review with the hopes of shortening it and answering some more questions. Unfortunately, it was only 34 seconds shorter - but I think all my questions were answered.



Although this game seems like a fluke, had I purposely done these two timing pushes because of scouting, etc. (instead of blindly doing them) - I would truly be a gosu dad!

TvT Live: Bring Your Own... Orbital Command?

Another live cast of BYOB - with a new twist. With less than 22 minutes to play, I queued up for a 1v1 and came out with this gem of a game. Who knew that timing attacks could be dictated by the time remaining in an episode of Bridezillas?

This brings new meaning to the phrase "expand towards your opponent" ;-)



And apologies to my fellow SC2 dads out there - I had almost finished uploading this video before thinking I should blur out my opponent's screen name during the loading screen. It did get a few chuckles from me as you saw. You'll have to explain to your kiddos that there are times (perhaps rare) that alien donkeys need a kick or two ;-)

Taking A Second Look

After replying to Brock's comment on my last video, I was inspired to do a second review of the game against MaGestic.

Despite the short length of that game and the AFK situation, there were some interesting points to discuss - and as I'm a talkative fellow, I went much longer than the 10-15 minutes I intended to cast!



There's something to be said for watching all your replays - especially if you're in a mood to learn something!

TvT Live: AFK and My Little Starcraft Buddy

Last night I gave the live casting another go - and had a fairly short TvT involving my opponent being "away from keyboard" (AFK) for the first few moments. The following review was accelerated when my little Starcraft buddy came home with his mom and he got to make a guest appearance :)



I did watch the replay slower afterwards and there were some interesting points. I don't know if I'll do a separate video for it - but of course, the more I think about the game, the more I'll lean towards casting a review :)

TvZ Live: Distracted by BYOB

After getting some positive feedback for my last live cast bundled with a replay review (Thanks Brock!), I decided to try it again last night.

This time I was matched against a Zerg (who turned out to be in Silver league!) and so got to try the 1-1-1 build (which I now like to call BYOB, Bring Your Own Banshee :-) against a new race!



The moral of the story - at least from my perspective - is clear: don't lose focus on that 2nd tier of Budha's Starcraft Pyramid - production.

In addition, the total video ended up being longer than I'd like. The encoding time kept me up late last night, and it took until 11am or so the next day to finish uploading!

So next time, if the game is long enough, I'll break it up into two videos so I can go to bed on time - and the Internet won't be bogged down in the morning - I'm sure my wife will appreciate both :)

TvT Live: Bring Your Own Banshee (BYOB)

Last night, I tried once again to cast a game live while playing - and succeeded! Not only that, but the game was short enough that I rolled right into casting the replay at normal speed (Faster game speed), and the whole thing was only 23 minutes :)

Another change - after playing such long games due to my economy/production focus, I decided that I should move out with my forces sooner - and this time tried bringing some banshees and SCVs. Yeah, I guess you could call it an all-in, but I was planning on expanding afterwards...



It'll be interesting to take this general game flow to other match-ups. I do enjoy sending out armies and not just sitting back and expanding like crazy. Hopefully Battle.net will find me some suitable Bronze league Zerg and Protoss opponents!

Out Macro a Zerg?

Last night I played my first game against a Zerg in Season 5, and the results were surprising. I originally intended to cast this game as I played it, but after some point, the game was just dauntingly long! So I ended up casting it afterwards - on 2x faster speed!



Two things really surprised me afterwards.

The first surprise was that after the game, the summary screen revealed that I had almost built as many workers as my opponent - a very odd occurrence when playing Terran vs Zerg!

The second surprise was that the final video was 20 minutes, but 4 minutes was me analyzing what happened after the game was over! Apparently I'm a bit more long-winded when I'm tired!

SCVs to the Rescue!

My second game playing Terran in Season 5 was quite the adventure. I tried to take advantage of the large map (Tal'darim Altar LE) and that I was playing in Bronze league to do a fast expand and really focus on the economy and production aspects of the game.

My opponent actually did a good job of keeping me on the edge - despite staying on one base for most of the game! Although the final outcome was somewhat anti-climactic, the game really stood out to me - perhaps for obvious reasons :)

Ending 2011 and Starting 2012 - Season 5 Qualifier!

First off, I want to wish everyone a (very belated) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I had a great Christmas break with my family and friends - lots of fun get-togethers, wonderful presents, yummy food, and of course, long-awaited home improvement projects! (pictures on our family blog at some point...)

Since that marathon of goodness, I've had two weeks to recover from the cold that hit our family, attempt to reset the sleep schedule, watch a British Victorian drama with my wife, and yes, put together more IKEA furniture and reorganize our basement - but with a very SC2-related result: a place to cast SC2 games in the evening! (pictures on this blog later...)

So last night I kicked off my StarCraft 2 year with a cast of my Season 5 1v1 qualifier, which I had played on Dec 23, just before Christmas.





As mentioned in the cast, the result was my placement back down into Bronze League!

It may surprise you, but I was actually relieved! Not because I wanted to crush some noobs, but because I've been thinking that it'd be good for me to return to the basics of SC2 play - and it works well with my planned reboot of StarClass...

I hope your Christmas time was great and you've done well in Season 5 so far! And if you haven't qualified yet, well, get playing and I'll see you online!