PvT adjustements in gold league part 1

1)
http://drop.sc/258134

What went wrong	Why went wrong	Next time
Glitches in probe production around when adding the second gate.	The was money. Forgot or did not make because was afraid of a two rax.	Nah. Just keep on making probes and chronoboost them.
Was unable to decide what the terran was up to.	Too little scouting information. Scouts were killed by units at terran natural.	Marauder present -> no 2 gate marine pressure. Should have played normally? Should have made immortals faster. Immortals before charge.
Took too long to expand after terrans 1st attack was denied.	Was afraid that terran would be camping at the ramp.	Send at probe earlier to check up on this matter. However, could the terran have punished for the early expand?
Lost to an attack with mmm +stim +concussives	Too little units. No sentries.	Replenish sentries. Make sure that there is enough 2-4 sentries during the early game. Maybe target medivacs with stalkers. Tech faster to immos if marauders present.

2)
http://drop.sc/258167

What went wrong	Why went wrong	Next time
Made again 2 gates before exp.	Because seemed like pressure would be comming.	Seemed to push back the terran aggression. Not sure tho.
Again slipping with probes when making buildings.	Seems that just forgetting because this time not doing because of pressure. Had plenty of munny.	Try to remember them!!!
Terran expanded earlier.	I was too afraid of pressure. Maybe again not enough information.	Get that god damn info. ergo scout moar.
Observer go shot down from the usual place.	There was a turret waiting.	Try different spot or be aware.
Expanded right after the terran had lost its units.	Because terran had last its units.	Do the same :p
Terran at first ahead in upgrades.	Because forges were built so late. Could have afforded earlier.	Could have built forges right after noticing that terran has upgrades. This would make the upgrade balance even? Being ahead would be nicer.
Attacked right before upgrades were ready.	Because seemed like a nice suprise stormin situation.	Dammit man. Wait for ups or just go and storm with one fellow. Btw, should have gone and stormed SCVs at exp.
Idle probes at 3rd. Nooooooo...	Misclick during probe transfer.	Check that these do not occur. Mur.
Part of the army was not hotkeyed and was not hence in the battle.	Accidentally just selected one immo without shift.	Lear to use the shift way of adding and do not always create new control group or hotkey the whole friggin army before attacking.
Immortals were just hanging near enemy	Robo rally point was wrong after warp prism.	Have usually remembered to change. Maybe include a robo rally checking moment
Probe transfer to 3rd was late	Nothing was going on. Didn't just pay attention.	Keep probe transfer in mind when warping 3rd.
Vikings were able to shoot colossus without disturbance.	Only 2 stalkers.	Make more stalkers/archons if the opponent has vikings.

An idea: lul, terran with sieged tanks sticks in the front. Drops out of this range would be so baaad to them ;p.

3)
http://drop.sc/258380

What went wrong/good	Why went wrong	Next time
Too much unspent chronoboost. Reached 100 @ 10:45 so did use a little and did lot lose any because of the cap.	Did propably think about chronoing.	Around ten minutes use crono on workers unless attack comming. Then use on gates & robo.
Missed dropships.	Saw medivac moving but?	Better observer placement. ff ramp and go after drop, of put stalkers to shoot out the dropship.
Did not make probes after battle.	Propably just forgot.	Remember them probes all the time man.
There was a dude at 3rd to prevent expanding.	Sent probe alone and it got killed.	Do not send probes alone but have escort. Not the whole army! Also use dt:s and other units to do this same for opponent.
A forward pylon for counter attacks.	Is good if no planetarys.	Keep doing it.
Was again behind in upgrades. But not as badly as last time.	Forge went down 10:27, Engibay: 7:34, +1 attack: 9:55, +1 armor 13:54.	Had less gaps in upgrading than terran, would be cool if no gaps and boosted out :3. Make an earlier forge and try to keep upgrades streaming and chronoed.
Traded 4th base for time to warp units.	Terran just went destroyed it and went back home.	This could be ok? Because terran will max slower than a protoss?
3rd got dropped many times ;__;. Those drops seemed very effective.	Could not see the dropship in minimap. There were no units ready to defend.	It is bad to leave many units behind but maybe 3 stalkers early and a templar late would be ok. Basically he has units in the vac which draw away from his main army. So ideally have less army value of units waiting for the vac than are in the vac, but so that they can destroy the vac.
Made DT and starport tech to try them out. Did not do so.	Somehow mindset got stuck to other units. The was no feeling "oh yeah now i need this this and this".	Should try to somehow think better which units to warp in.

4) Won a gold Terran
Rax - gass - rax - engibay - gass - techlab - factory - starport - CC -> cloack bansh
http://drop.sc/260810

What went wrong/good	Why went wrong/right	Next time
Nice map control and scouting with stalker.	Was very aware about the opponent base count and early game expansions.
Nice expanding	Was able to defend and was earlier than opponents.	Cloak banshiers are not able to make a big army so can expand somewhat freely?
Defending from banshees	Did not have a good line of defense.	Leave some units at natural and move some units to main. If only one observer keep it between the mineral lines of main and natural.
Army positioning after taking 3rd	It took a long time for the army to arrive.	Keep army between 3rd and 2nd and use observers to detect forces coming to 3rd or main.
More aggressive forward pylon	Reinforcements had a long long way.	Make a forward pylon to the spot you gather before attacking, also to your points of defense.
Made too many probes (96)	Supply is bound to probes rather than to army.	Check probes from time to time when 3rd is up and running.
Attacked at right time.	Had more supply, better ups, more tech.	Attack when have more supply, better ups and more tech.

5) Won a gold Terran in Could Kingdom
3 rax into exp

http://drop.sc/261949

What went wrong	Why went wrong	Next time
Saw two raxes and made 2 gate - not 1 gate exp	?	?
Floated a lot of munny	3 bases, 4 gates 1 robo 9_9	Try to have rules for adding production buildings.
Was not aware of his unit composition	No observer at his base, no poking by one unit, no prism scout.	Better scouting.
Terran came to poked annoyingly ://	Did not have enough energy to trap him with ff.	Make more sentries early.

6) Lost to a Diamond Terran in Taldarim Altar
2 rax pressure into exp

http://drop.sc/262009

What went wrong	Why went wrong	Next time
2nd push was devastating	Army was misplaced, smaller and aoe unit would have been required for stim+vacs	This was not a good placing, colossus should be acquired faster.
Did not see that terran expanded	Probe visibility was not enough	Move probe to check

7) Lost to a Gold Terran in Ohana
3 rax with 2 gass pressure into exp, attack with mostly marauders with concussive

5http://drop.sc/262185

What went wrong	Why went wrong	Next time
Died from the push.	Not enough units or energy to block.	Make more units and more sentries or only sentries.

A pile of adjustments

http://drop.sc/257291

Le Plan: FFE and attack around 10-12 minutes, take 3rd & tech to colos, take 4th and tech to stargates

What went wrong	Why went wrong	Next time
Allowed exp before pool, allowed fast 3rd	No pressure was put	Use cannons or attack with a small force
Zerg had too many units when attacked 1st time	Attack was late. But did have an effect.	Could not have made much larger army. Run away after ff:s melt or make new ones.
Too few units/too low tech @ the moment zerg came	No tech. Did not warp in units aggressively enough.	Tech to colossus as you take 3rd or attack. DO NOT DELAY!Warp more aggressively.
Minerals were running out towards the end	Only one mining base	Expand to 4th earlier, when you feel you can protect it
Upgrades did not run smoothly.	Twilight was not up early enough.	Twilight up earlier. Around ½ of armor up?

Tech speed comments:
Roachwarren @ 7:07
hmm-m, not many gasses. Fast 3 basing zerg will be late in tech and does not have much units. Tech to colossus faster?

Nice forward pylons
Nice ff:s
Handled 1st zerg attack
Stargate tech helped a lot


http://drop.sc/257670

What went wrong/good	Why went wrong/good	Next time
Nexus before forge.	Scouted & reacted correctly that pool was latish.	Do the same.
Gases were late. Could not start warp research in time.	Just forgot..	Remember adding gasses right after the 1st gate unless pressure.
Was not able to scout mutalisks very early.	Scouted them before critical mass.	Make a new observer or make a small attack with a zealot or stalker or probe to see whats going on.
Zerg was allowed to save larva for mutas.	No need to make anything else except mutas and drones.	Would there be any use of small pokes or drops? Maybe a drop instead of observer?
Micro: Guardian shields were late and too many	Was not maybe paying attention to army enough, panic mode. Was not aware of mutalisk movement.	Pay more attention to attacking. Make more observers against mutas. (lul DT:s?)
Would have taken long for the reinforcements to arrive.	Do warping point close by.	Try to have a warp prism with the army or make forward pylons into safer spots.
No blink was used during battles.	Don't really know how to use. Except for chasing.	Try to check how the pros blink.

Went to mutalisks so fast that had not anything else to defend with so it was ok to attack after having enough defences back home.
7 gates was nice.

http://drop.sc/257672 (random)

What went wrong/good	Why went wrong	Next time
Forge was too early.	Intepreted the pool to be faster.	12/13 pool has just begun is not  close to ready when arriving to zerg base in this map.
When using upground pylon the wall was weird.	A gate needed to be destroyed to get out.	should start @ different point, closer to nexus so that one tile is used from the other row.
The buildings were easily scoutible by overlord.	Placed into front row.	Place buildings to the back of the base and kill them overlords.
Gaah, mutalisks. Came as a suprise!	Late game scouting failed.	More observers.

Adjustments from previous time: moar gates, targeting units during fights

----

Le Plan: Rush to DT:s, attack if possible, expand and add gates push with chargelot archon army, if fails expand and push with colossai.

http://drop.sc/257323

What went wrong/good	Why went wrong	Next time
Expanded at nice time.	Was able to hold the expansion.
Money started to float after expansion.	Not enough teching or production.	More gates after expanding or faster tech.
Push failed because opponent had colossai.	Attack too late or too few units. More units could have been warped.	Warp more for the push.
Had 1-1 upgrades but opponent won with no upgrades.	Fight maybe at bad position. Better macro!	Do not fight at ramp, only on the upend.
Lost to a huge amount (4 vs. 2) of colossai.	Did not have range!	Remember range!

http://drop.sc/257334

What went wrong/good	Why went wrong	Next time
There was just a nice amount of gass for teching when both gasses were put before core.		Do the same.
Opponent (3gate robo) had immortal out early, meaning no obs! Punishable :3		Punish them ^__^
Was behind in tech. However, no critical colocount.	No tech buildings.	Maybe robo and bay right after expansion. Maybe take timing benchmarks fot these?
Was behind in upgrades.	No forge.	Forge as soon after exp as possible. Maybe take timing benchmarks fot these?
Was not too aware of opponents doings because obs got destroyed by cannon.	Not drop, no obs.	Do a drop or make more observers. Be more aware!!

Successful adjustments: made more gates (total 7), remembered range, spent munny more efficiently, targeted units instead of buildings, also got the colossus down.

PvP DT rush into archon chargelot into colossai

http://drop.sc/256425

- make forward pylons to get 1-2 dt:s to his base during attack if he is 4 gating, because will have no detection
- make forge sooner

Learning to understand zerg

1 basing zergs



2 basing zergs with mainly roaches
http://drop.sc/255847

Will expand to a third before 10min, after has few roaches out. Will keep on producing roaches. Will make 1-1 upgrades out of 2 evo chambers.

--> Try to delay the 3rd with gateway units and immortals until has so many roaches that can actually defend the 3rd. Escape shielded by ff:s when starts to have too many roaches. Make sure you have a forward pylon near enough.


2 basing zergs with a lot of zerglings
http://drop.sc/256434 
made a lot of zerglings
then a huge load of hydras
then corruptors & broodlords
--> should have stayed in the base?
WTF...zerg imba...


fast 3 basing zergs 


Cannonin expansions
Basically should only be done if the zerg does not make pool before exping. Utilize the terrain to deny access from units. Use pylons to wall off.
http://drop.sc/256440


The power of Zerg
Zerg units are not too good if they are in small backs but a terrifying in huge amounts. Zergs can try to save up larva to try to reach that critical mass fast.  This can be prevented by forcing zerg to use larva before he can have his tech ready.

Learning good strategy?

Getting information
Scouting if the opponent is teching too fast or too slow
Scouting if the opponent is expanding too fast of too slow
Scouting the unit composition of the opponent
Scouting the upcoming tech of the opponent
Scouting when the attack is coming

Using suitable build orders (teching & expanding @ right timings) and Attacking at right timings
Punishing by attacking if the opponent is teching too fast because his army will be weaker
If the opponent is teching too slow you will have an advantage automatically
Punishing by attacking if the opponent is expanding too fast
If the opponent is expanding too slow you will have an advantage automatically
Selecting correct tech

Building correct units
Producing a countering unit composition
Reacting to an upcoming attack by dropping and preparing to get everything out of defenders position


So basically... teching and expanding when you can defend yourself from your opponent and attacking your opponent when he can not defend.


But how to benchmark your progress along detecting and reacting correctly to opponent? By marking if you detected correctly or not? and by analyzing if your reaction strengthened you positions of not?

Trying to find benchmarks and good goals

When quickly depicting the situation one can separate several fields: strategy, macro, micro, mechanics. These are fairly large subjects themselves so more divisions..


Good strategy is about:
getting information == scouting
using suitable build orders
building correct units
attacking at right timings
expanding at right timings
teching at right timings

Now I realize that utilizing good strategies is very hard. You need to either understand the game flow between different match ups very well or you need to copy what others do in similar situations. However, the thought of solving these questions as the game goes on makes my heart beat with excitement...Yet, this is the stuff I know least about.


Good macro is about:
building pylons
building probes
building units
building unit production facilities
building gass
ordering workers to collect gass
ordering workers to collect minerals
making expansions

Hmmmn, everything else seems fairly easy to practice except for building unit production facilities, building gass and making expansions. I see these as a bit tricky because they are connected to timing things (strategy).


Good micro is about:
complementing the AI and correcting its mistakes
Avoiding missclicking

Feels easily doable with hard core practice.


Good  mechanics are about:
Utilizing the keyboard and mouse to efficiently get things done
Having "correct" hotkeys
Avoiding missclicking

Feels easily doable with hard core practice. 

Dealing with Starcraft anxiety

One of the hardest things for me at least, is to cope with the overwhelming frustration caused by sc2. I'm not saying I hate the game. I'm saying I hate myself for not being able to grasp it as quickly as I usually do with new things. If you know what I'm saying ;p

Somehow I have managed to not destroy things anymore. The most important anger management technique I utilized was the analysis of the source of all the frustration. I found out that I became furious due to the inability to reach my goals. Goals which were sometimes way too difficult to reach (beating a guy few leagues above) and sometimes the likelihood of being able to reach was affected by random factors (ladder opponents). That was when the goal was to win the game. Now that, is the worst goal ever.

Good goals should be easy to reach. Good goals should make you a better gamer. Good goals should make your macro better. Good goals should make your micro better. Being a better gamer game by game should be the goal.

However, even after having realized this it somehow gets frustrating when you feel like there is no progress. The tools to measure progress, such as sc2gears MMR plugin or you ladder placement, are based on the amount of wins. So, how is one able to measure progress? Day[9] introduced benchmarking. That seems to be the golden solution. But one is left with a question, what should you benchmark?

Can this be solved by cutting the problem into pieces? Lets try ^-^