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 :)

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!

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 :)

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!

Bedtime == Final Attack

Another cast from the 1v1 ladder! This time it's a Terran vs. Zerg match-up and a good example of how (or how not to) handle a turtled player. And the timing of the final attack? I told my wife I'd end the game when she was ready to call it a night - she let the dog out and got my attention - and I sent in the troops!




Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point at my new YouTube channel.

Losing to Zerg

Last night I lost a TvZ and a TvT, both on the same map, Nerazim Crypt. I can't hold it against the map though, hehe, as I've been losing in all maps equally ;) So as of this morning, I had lost 9 of my last 10 games. Not encouraging.

But I skimmed through the two replays and noticed that my worker production was sorely lacking. I was so focused on army producing structures and expanding that I wasn't continuing to train SCVs - and my opponents were. I was also getting supply blocked many times - through no feat of my opponent.

So this morning I figured I'd focus on making SCVs and Supply Depots. Battle.net found me an opponent and the game was on the Shattered Temple map (whew - it wasn't Nerazim Crypt!) and I was playing against Zerg. I would have casted this game - but the mic on my headset wasn't just getting noise, it was occasionally recording nothing :( So here are the highlights - in pictures :)

7:16 minutes into the game. We started in close-by-ground positions, and my first attack group arrived just as my opponent was about to finish his expansion Hatchery. Unfortunately, I did not have Stim Pack researched, so they were unable to destroy it. Since the Marines focused their fire on the Hatchery, the Zerglings and Queen made short work of them.

10:36 - Here is my attempt at being "smart". Rather than bringing these two Siege Tanks behind my second wave of Marines, I thought I'd get them set up in this corner above the expansion Hatchery ahead of time. Too bad the Overlord in the upper right saw everything. It also didn't help that the tanks started shooting a Spine Crawler (it's off the screenshot on the bottom) instead of the Zerglings. I tried to unseige the tanks and load them back into the Medivac - one was saved :)

10:44 - Here's that second wave of Marines. They're greeted by 3 Spine Crawlers, 2 Queens, and shortly, a bunch of Zerglings bummed that they didn't kill both tanks. The Marines were able to kill both Queens. The funny part? I thought the Zerglings were the only army units - so was surprised when I rescued the tank and my Marines were nowhere to be seen. Whoops.

18:20 - So at this point, my goal of building SCVs and Supply Depots was working - and I had more resources than I could spend. So I expanded and made lots of stuff. I had tried a drop earlier and spied a bunch of Roaches, so I made lots of Siege Tanks, Marines and Medivacs. This is a pretty formidable front line!

18:20 - And this is the back of my main base. You never want to see this - a dark spot in your base where you have no vision (upper right) - and a stream of Roaches and Zerglings coming out of it. Nydus Worm attacks are hard to pull off if your opponent is scouting. I was not scouting. Funny part? I heard the scream of the Nydus Worm finishing - and was like "What a weird sound. Wonder what that was." Duh. (facepalm)

18:47 - It was a brilliantly timed attack. I reacted to the Nydus Worm by sending all my SCVs from the main mineral line to my expansion. And moved all my mobile army (the Marines) back into the main base to defend. That left my front line with only Siege Tanks, which can't attack air units. So besides a few Missile Turrets, I was powerless when a ball of 15 Mutalisks arrived. The tanks and SCVs were destroyed in a few moments. All I could say was "nice - very nice". We exchanged gg's and I surrendered.

So on one hand, it was discouraging to lose again. But I reminded myself last night that my goal was not to win all the time - that's an unreasonable expectation - my goal is to get better. As day[9] would say, "Be a better gamer." So in that regard, this game went pretty well - I kept up with building SCVs, and was only supply blocked once (I think) in the first half of the game.

I've heard many times to focus on one thing at a time - until that thing is second nature. So expect to see lots of SCVs and Supply Depots in future games :)

Improving From a Replay: CmdrTallon's Banshee Rush

After posting CmdrTallon's replay, I was intrigued with his build and whether I could put into practice some of the things mentioned in the review and actually improve upon the banshee timing.

CmdrTallon's example was pretty good. 4 cloaked banshees by 10 minutes 35 seconds (10:35), and the first volley of missiles hitting the opponent's base at 12:55.

Here's my attempt recorded live:



So in my first attempt, by moving the order of some buildings, I was able to build the 4 banshees and research Cloak by 9:09, shaving 1:26 off the original time. And by scouting, the first banshee missiles were flying by 10:18, 2:37 sooner than in CmdrTallon's game.

So in comparison at the 10:35 mark:

	CmdrTallon	StarcraftDad
Banshee	4	6
Marine	17	13 (3 were killed earlier by an attack)
Marauder	1
SCV	22	19
Minerals	195	680
Gas	84	358
Supply / Supply Cap	59/75	50/51

Although I had a significant amount of resources left at that point, CmdrTallon had built an Engineering Bay, a few Turrets, more units, and had more supply available. So he was doing a great job of spending his resources - while I let that slip behind as I was so focused on the banshees that I was getting supply blocked and not macro-ing back at my base.

More interesting than that though, is that I later made more attempts to beat that 9:09 timing - and only succeeded on the 9th try: 8:56.

At my skill level, I'm guessing I'm reaching the point of diminishing returns. 9 minutes is pretty good for having 4 banshees with cloak.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be ready for them if they showed up in my base at the 10 minute mark ;-)

Why don't you give it a whirl? Terran vs. Zerg (any AI level) on The Shattered Temple, how fast can you get 4 cloaked banshees into the opponent's main? And how large was your defending force? Post your time and unit count in the comments!

Don't forget, you need to build 2 barracks and marines for defense, and don't forget to scout to reduce the flying time to the opponent's base!

Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point to my new YouTube channel.

Replay Review: CmdrTallon's Banshee Rush

For today's StarClass, I did a review of a replay sent to me by my best friend, CmdrTallon. He is qualifying for Season 3 and looking for ideas on how to improve his play.

Apologies for sounding tired - I casted this before midnight after a long day (and previously long night!) - and it took me a few false starts before I got the "nerves" settled down to cast! And sorry for it going so long - I slowed the game speed down at one point... and forgot to speed it back up!


Don't forget to watch these fullscreen - and if your bandwidth allows, in HD :-)

For those that just want the bullet points:

• Have a basic plan for what your first goal is when the game starts. This will help you make decisions about timing trade-offs between different buildings or units.
• Scout! All but one of the 1v1 maps on the Blizzard ladder are 4-player maps, and some of them are very large. For many strategies (such as this one), knowing where your opponent's base is can dramatically affect the impact of your attacks.
• Have a plan for expanding to your natural expansion. Even if your plan focuses on a 1-base timing (such as this one), you need to be prepared mentally for the next step, should your opponent survive your attack. If they have expanded ahead of you, you'll need to catch up in the macro (economy) game. If they haven't, you'll want to press your advantage, and enter the mid-game ahead of them.

And a special point for you blog readers:

• Know the timing of your units, buildings, and upgrades - and when you'll need them. You may be able to build buildings a bit sooner, or train a few more workers or army units. You'd be surprised how these decisions can add up to shave minutes off the timing of your goals, or give you the few more units needed to survive an attack.

Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point to my new YouTube channel.

Qualifier Surprises

Last night, I played a few games vs Very Hard computer opponents for warm up. This morning, I woke up, played my 1v1 qualifier and casted it, all before leaving for work - and making it on time :)

It was a surprising game. During the game I felt (as usual?) that it was a super tight game - at every moment, I felt like I was seconds away from my base being overrun. And if you watch the cast, you can see that the feeling was not unwarranted!




And with that, I qualified into Silver league!

Interestingly, according to the score screen, I was ranked 20th in my division upon qualifying. But when I looked at my rank on the Multi-Player screen a few minutes later, I was ranked 22.

Perhaps I was placed into a new division, and by the time I looked at the Multi-player tab, 2 more people had qualified and were ranked higher. I'll likely be ranked much lower when I log in next time. Zero rank points will do that ;-)

Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point to my new YouTube channel.

First Game in Silver League

Two days ago (July 14) was a day of many firsts for this Starcraft dad!

• My son turned 9 months old for the first (and only) time - and is as big as his sister who is almost 2 years and 2 months old!
• In the evening, I started a 30-day workout series - 20-minutes a day with Jillian Michaels! (my wife is doing the same series)
• And to kick off the day - I played my first 1v1 game in Silver league!

It was somewhat of a re-match of my qualifier game (which I lost due to an early Roach attack).

I played on the same map, against the same race (Zerg), and in the same starting position as in my qualifier. My opponent even started with a similar Roach attack. I also found out afterwards that my opponent was once again a Bronze player at the top of his division (last time he was Rank 1? and this time I think he was Rank 4).

But as you can see in this videocast I did the next morning - the result was not the same!

(YouTube has a 15 minute cap in videos for regular accounts, so I had to split it up. BTW, I updated the embedded code so fullscreen is available from the embedded player AND higher resolutions are available when you go fullscreen!)
Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point at my new YouTube channel - it no longer has to be split into two videos.

And with that comeback, I advance to rank 63 in my division!

And celebrate my 100th league win!

So my current standing is:
Division Rank 63
30 points
Bonus Pool 1246

After my qualifier back in May, I was:
Division Rank 84
0 points
Bonus Pool 780

A New Season

The first season of the official online ladder (hosted by the developer, Blizzard) ended this last March, and before I realized it (literally), the second season of the official ladder began.

As the first season was wrapping up, I had this idea that it would be cool if the launch of this blog coincided with my start in the second season. Cool idea, huh? (my daughter loves saying "huh?")

Alas, I was so wishy-washy with getting this blog started, that I didn't play my first game until two and half months later - the day after my 32nd birthday. (And yes, at the time I thought it would be cool to also launch the blog right after my birthday...)  It then took me another month to sit down, get over the perfectionist in me, and actually record a commentary of that game!  But it's done!

So for my first blog post, I am happy to announce not only my return to the world of competitive StarCraft 2, but also my entrance into the world of videocasting! (Don't worry, I'm keeping my day job - this is definitely an example of amateur enthusiasm!)

If you click on the video after it starts playing, you can watch it in full 720p on YouTube. This video is also available on my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/gosudad

Oddly enough, despite my complete domination in this first game (and yes, you can read that phrase in two different ways), I was placed in the SILVER league!

This was a huge surprise to me, as my entire career in the first season had been spent in the Bronze league. Not quite sure how the Battle.Net ranking system decided my placement - but there was talk that Blizzard recently fixed a bug in the ranking system that was preventing people from promoting, so perhaps that's what happened here. Nonetheless, I was quite pleased :-)

Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to link to my new YouTube channel.