Summary of things learned about scouting (will be updated)

1. The attitude or mindset actually has an effect! I am always too scared to scout zerg, however I very often push for information when playing against terran. This allows me to quite often have the feeling of over powering the terran. As a conclusion when ever scouting think "I'm scouting your game plan so get the hell out of my way".

2. A rather efficient way to improve seems to be the way of making a list of things to scout and then trying to improve on few of them at a time. It feels even more feasible if the list is arranged so that the things to be scouted are in chronological order.

3. It will improve your game sense if you write down what you scouted, how you reacted and what could have been a better reaction. One of the good starting points is to number the attacks that came and whether you were able to scout them and what was your reaction etc.

4. Scouting can be maybe grouped?

1.  is it a cheese
2. macro vs tech style? (base count vs gass count)
3. 1st tech choice: T (bio/mech/biomech), Z (lings/banes/roaches), P (air/robo/twilight)

This weeks is going to be scouting practice!

vs Protoss (check out previous)

vs Zerg
- general overlord positions



Try to keep the Xelnagas!
Check how much do you let the opponent have intel!


During early game

PvP	PvT	PvZ
-after the gate search your base for proxy gates - how much chrono does he have (4gate in time or not at all or not in time) - 1 or 2 gasses? - is gateway building zealot before core? - if no zealot & 2nd gass + does not make another gate in time --> attack with stalker & zealot - is the stalker chronoed or not (takes 10sec to pop out -which techpath	- one base or two? Scout at 6mins - gass or not? 1 gass -> marauders/upgrades/bansheesh/medivacs - how many barracks? - use stalkers to peek at what units and addons	- pool timing - 2nd timing - how fast takes gas - timing of 3rd? (if was not early check at 6min)

During mid game

PvP	PvT	PvZ
What is the colossus count? What is the basecount?	- when are the medivacs comming - is there a lot of (>5) air, rax or fac - when 3rd?	- which tech banes/roaches? - lair? -> mutalisks/infestors/nydus (~9min?) (chekc out at somepoint the warp prism madness game :>> )

During late game

PvP	PvT	PvZ
- Base count	- Base count. - viking count	- hivetetech, scout when taking 3rd ~12min? -> when broodlards are popping out - where spire is located?

1st Game against a silver zerg
Scouted exp first - should have gone cannons
Scouted no fast gass
Scouted no fast 3rd
Scouted lair with 2 total gass around 5:40
Did not see 1st attack comming - would not have suffered so much if saw. Could have seen by having observers or towers.
Did not have Xelnaga towers. Units were in the main army and accidentally drew them back.
Part of scouting failed because of faulty wall.
! in Shakuras it is good to place observers between the central cliffs
? before when zerg must have made tech choise? This one made roach warren around 6:30.

2nd Game against a gold zerg
Scouted 14 pool - yeah, was 14 pool - should have not made gate, should have made nexus, maybe even cancelled forge?  or maybe in Cloud Kingdom not necessary to get forge at 12? if not pool when you arrive then go nexus first?
Scouted 2nd. 3:03, no gass only pool. Is this late or normal?
Haha, pylon at 3rd cause it to be late and floating minerals. This pylon will be useful if did not take gasses. Because then can not do anything before has destroyed the pylon. 2 pylons even better?
Did not scout roach warren.
Scouted lair.
Had the other Xelnaga for quite long. Should have retaken.
Scouted hive and infestation pit and spire. Destroyed spire.
Did not pay any attention to gasses of 2nd and 3rd.
During late game was not aware of the base count.
Did not know about corruptors or broodlord count.
Did not know about ultralisks.
Keep observer in army to destroy creep.

3rd Game against a gold zerg
Same in Ohana, if no pool when you get to the base it is going to be exp 1st or 14 pool or later.
Delayed natural with pylon.
Should have checked 3rd base earlier.
Did not scout gasses until observer. Is this bad?
If does not take gasses from 2nd and 3rd will not have gass for units? -> makes mainly lings
Had good vision from Xelnaga during whole early game.
Scouted lair.
Scouted roach warren. Did not keep count on his roaches and lings?
Using a forward pylon near 4th & 5th -> usually fast reinforcements. Vision about expansions.
--> Scout tech and then go to his units.

4th Game against a gold zerg
Did not scout ninja 3rd even tho suspected it.And actively scouted the standard location.
Scouted latish pool, exp, relatively fast (?) gass. If pool is almost ready when you arrive to last location in antiga it was a 14 or later.
I gass in this case meant speedlings.
Scouted roach warren - but did not see many roaches mostly lings.
Scouted lair.
Scouted at 10:40 that had all 4 gass.
Failed to scout mutas? Moved observer away just before the gasses were taken and spire built. Moved observer back but did not check the back of the base.
Could not find his army. Scout locations where you do not want the army to be in and if is not in those then expand?
Scouted that units were mostly lings.
Had Xelnaga nicely until mid game.

5th Game against a gold protoss
Successfully scouted 4 gate - but reaction was wrong.

6th Game against a silver zerg
Was able to delay hatch for a bit
Scouted hatch first but did not have forge so went nexus first
Scouted one gass right after pool & hatch-> ???
When scouted at 5mins saw only one gass still and only pool as tech structure, when do zergs usually make new tech? at 6 mins? Roachwarren at 5:30, so scout maybbe a bit of?
Also this time fast 1 gas was associated with ling speed.
Scouted no 3rd before 8:30 so made sure not to expand too hastily.
Scouted no 3rd before 9:55 and though that was weird considering the small amount of units.
Scouted when the 3rd was finally built at around 12 -> as a reaction also expanded.
Scouted lair but did not "notice" it.
Scouted roach tech and that roaches were being made.
Scouted whenhad no upgrades.
Scouted when had 1-1.
Poor Xelnaga control.
Did not scout infestation pit.
Maybe more observers? Army obs + base obs at least?
Pylon scouted 4th a bit late. Maybe scoutery pylons placed even earlier at 4th and 5th?
Did not scout hive?
Overlord at the back of the 4th. If you think it is nice to place pylons at 3rd, 4th and 5th then maybe zerg thinks this same is nice to do with overlords and terran that with marines.
Would a 3 stalker scout squads be bad or overkill? Also observer against zerg? They could scout for hostile units and hold towers?

Thanks to nukkuj from some serious protips!

Scouting Protoss Shit Storms

1. After the gate search your base for proxy gates
• in your base
• common places
• actively check for forward pylons
 
2. When scouting his base 1st time
• how much chrono does he have (4gate in time or not at all or not in time)
• 1 or 2 gasses?
• is gateway building zealot before core?
• if no zealot & 2nd gass + does not make another gate in time --> attack with stalker & zealot
• is the stalker chronoed or not (takes 10sec to pop out)
 
3. When scouting his base (4.45-5.15 min) --> 4 gate or not?

http://day9.tv/d/Day9/day9-daily-474-liquidhero-vs-mouzmana-neat-pvp/

fuuuuuuuuuu

Hallo, feels like it has been ages since I last played. One word my man, one word. GuildWars.

Maybe I should pick up a training schedule. Like 5 games per day etc. I just have to kick myself back to good practice.

Maybe I haven't played since I already got promoted to gold league and platinum feels unrealistic to be reached before next year..

Yay, improving in mechanics

^___^ Just by knowing that this can be done I did it <3 <3

1. pressing space (base hotkey) after building a pylon to get fast back to mineral line
2. clicking a bit forward from gate/pylon/building before clicking from the minimap to keep probe moving (copied from HerO)

Back to basics?

I set up a list of small things to check that are ok.

Building placement:
Do units get stuck behind or between structures? How to avoid this?
How does your building placement act towards you and attacker when you are defending drops?
How do your buildings increase your base awareness?
Supporting mechanics: How do you perform building placement? How could it be more efficient?

Macro:
Nonstop worker production. Should the unit production also be nonstop or reactive? From robo and stargates maybe nonstop but from gates? Did you have too many or too few units? Why were there too much or too few?
Supporting mechanics: Checking probe & unit production frequently enough.

Expanding:
when ever you have enough units to defend your expansion and have enough money to build one. So basically? How much does he have units? Is he going to attack? Did you have enough units, too few units or too many units? Did you expand when you could have unit and money wise done so? When did these suitable spots occur? Did you make additional unit production facilities before you expanded?

Initial scouting:
How well did you control you probe? What do you want to find out? When can you leave and why? Did you probe die? Was your macro affected? How do pros perform this initial scout?

Keeping Xelnaga towers:
What are the benefits you find?

Army positioning:
Are you grabbing the best defensive advantage? How could you have more defensive advantage?

Teching:
Gass means going down the tech tree. When can you afford to start collecting gass or using it for tech? Haha, what if you just take gass very greedily like before some important first buildings? What can this lead to?
Does optimal teching mean that you place the tech as you have enough gass? So does optimizing a build mean that at that moment you will have enough minerals also?
Did you advance through the tech tree? Where did you stop? Why? How smooth was this advancement? Maybe make a plan how to tech through the whole three? What are the rock, paper and scissors? The amount of units might change its rock, paper, scissors status?

Upgrades:
Did you keep them strolling? Were you ahead or behind your opponent? Why did you not built forge earlier?

An incoming attack:
Did you see the attack coming? Why you did or did not? Did you know what upgrades, what composition and what unit count? What was your reaction? Was this the best solution or could something have been done otherwise?

...
seems that the list became quite long :p. Maybe just pick few things and check that you are improving on those. Or make it like a game: 1st 1 thing, then 2 things, then 3. etc. See if you can go over the limit of human mind (4-7).

Some improvements against platinum Protoss

Improvements from Game 1

What went wrong/good	Why went wrong/good	Next time
< 3 probes in gass	Phoenixes, man.	Immediately put probes back to gass. and heck that there is enough mining.
Teched too early.	Forgot to put the 2 gates.	Immediately make 2 gates after expanding.
1st attack was bad.	Got ffed, phoenixes causing havoc.	Against zealots kite or sentries.
1st defence	Blink on zealots?	Should have just built more units and waited..

Improvements from Game2

What went wrong/good	Why went wrong/good	Next time
Was behind in upgrades.	Forge was very much later.	Try to pinch in forge earlier.
3rd was later.	Was too afraid too expand?	Just force a defense point and punish him coming to attack by doing drops.
Map control.	Did not have.	If you are having 3 stalkers early you might just use them to have some nice map control by taking the towers.
Lost 2nd.	Stalkers were not defending it. Not enough gass to do shit.	Just warp early one zealot to get rid of the gass steal.