Thank you, sir! Unfortunately I am not quite as good as you suspected, for I had managed to make only three Gateways. I am nonetheless gratified to have earned your accolades.00:00:04 - BillyBanana: gl hf
00:08:22 - [name removed]: i think every single faggot ive played today has 4 gate
00:08:26 - [name removed]: good job youre so good
In all seriousness, I'm glad to say that I'm back in the swing of things. Since Thanksgiving, I haven't been practicing nearly as much as before. I was feeling frustrated about losing to the same things I always have, and I started to feel nervous about laddering. Thoughts of giving up on SC2 started creeping into my head. But those thoughts have not prevailed. I know this road all too well, having let Go become a terrifying specter. This time, I am determined not to give up or to let my emotions turn into thoughts (a phrase borrowed from Day[9], which is to say letting "I am frustrated and sad that I keep losing" turn into "I am bad at this game and should stop trying.") One of the most powerful thought tricks I have found to help me persevere is to imagine how good I could possibly get in one, two, five, ten years. If I let go of every misgiving and just think matter-of-factly about the level of skill I am capable of achieving, my mind boggles. I could become one of the best players in the world, a true master. Now that's an exciting thought.
Ironically, a recent viewing of Day[9] Daily #208 "Live Coaching with DJ Wheat" seemed to actually hurt my play for the day after I saw it. In the video, Day[9] coaches Wheat to play slowly and focus on macro above all else. At one point he even tells Wheat to completely ignore a battle just to make sure he was 100% on top of Larva injections and such. Hint: This is an extreme approach! I think Day[9] knows that's extreme, but his audience was lower league players who pay too much attention to pretty explosions and not enough to macro. In other words, I'm past that point. I honestly don't remember the last time I got behind in macro because of some distraction. Wow, that really is true. I'm just now realizing that as I type. I guess it goes to show that it pays to reflect on how you've improved. Anyway, the other reason that that Daily didn't jive well with me was the slow play aspect. I think he was trying to counter the panic that pervades the emotions of so many RTS players. That certainly applies to me, but in trying to calm down I became detached from the game, which decreased my response time and removed my instinctual rhythms, making my macro worse instead of better. Ultimately the main reason I panic and worry during a game is because I don't have a good enough understanding of the game to know how well I'm doing and how to reasonably maximize my chances of winning. So the answer for me is to become acutely aware and involved with the game but remain detached from the result. Of course I cannot always know what optimal play is, but if I "stay conscious" and make deliberate choices based on best guesses, then it should be a simple matter to do a post-game analysis of the effectiveness of those choices.
Recently I've been thinking a lot about the early game, which is a very fascinating and critical part of the game that is so easy to overlook. For example, there is virtually nothing to lose but plenty to gain in sending your first Zealot over to a Terran's base across a small or medium rush distance. Maybe you'll kill a Marine or an SCV building a Bunker at the top of the ramp. If they've walled off, at least you'll get some scouting info. Worst case scenario, you simply have to retreat. It's not like they're going to have Stim or a Marauder with Concussive Shells. Your Zealot is 100% safe! What a revelation. I am seeing the power of knowing timings. And the veil of mystery begins to lift ever so slightly.
p.s. Another interesting area to look at timings is the Zerg fast-expand. They are utterly vulnerable for a while, lulling you into a sense of safety, and then BOOM they've got two Spine Crawlers up and you're being surrounded by twenty speedlings. I'm thinking about posting a little PvZ analysis of that build soon. It's about time I get some real strategy content in this blog.
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Games played: 960
League/points: Diamond/2310
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