Diary of a Bronzie

[Romek]

Banner coming soon​

Diary of a Bronzie?

So, I'm going to get back 'into' (as if I ever was into) Starcraft melee. I was a low bronze player in the last season, so don't expect much, though I figured it might be interesting to see how I'm progressing.
I'll play a few games from time to time, and I'll write about any interesting games or events that take place (such as a promotion), as well as any lessons learned. I may upload a few replays on the games too, so you can feel free to advise me on anything you feel to, should you watch them.

Any comments and criticism would be appreciated, on the idea, format, etc; as well as the games.

...Maybe I should mention that I'm a Zerg player, under the alias 'Requiem'.​

Day 1

My Placement Game

First game back into SC2, and I got a ZvZ game. I actually lost the game, though I felt like I had played better than him throughout. I started off with a strange 10-pool, which killed a queen and a few drones. All the zerglings died a stupid death because I forgot about them (a taste of what to expect from me). I had an expansion, whilst he was on a single base for the whole game. I eventually got Nydus'd with a bunch of roaches which flat out killed me - I was planning on making roaches and defences when I saw him move out, since I had full map control.
Worst thing about the loss was that the nydus was right in my base, and I didn't see it. I was observing the minimap for his army to move down the map, though I wasn't paying attention to my base at all. I guess the lesson to be learned is a simple "look on the minimap. All over the minimap".

Oddly enough, despite being in Bronze league last season, and losing this game, I was promoted to Silver!
​

Game 1:

My first game in my new league, and I won it. As he moved out with a Marauder/Marine/Banshee ball, I counter attacked with zerglings which almost outright killed him. He actually made a return by dropping mules and making SCV's, though it resulted in him not having enough defences against the Roach/Infestor/Ling ball I had. The replay actually surprised me in that I had about 20 drones on two bases for almost the entire game. I don't remember being harassed, so I guess I just sucked at droning up. That's my lesson learned for this game - pay attention to my worker count (and actually drone up)!
​

 

[Bloodcount]

Glad to see that you are doing it. Best of luck with it !

 

[Accname]

maybe you upload some replays? You can learn alot if you watch your own play and get some commentary.

 

[Monsterous]

Good luck to you romek <3
Dont forget to APM Spam - thats what all the pros do!

 

[Whitesock]

Just remember to always keep your resources low and you should shoot up!

 

[Accname]

When i first played this game i got instantly into gold league. I really didnt know much about the game, apm and generic RTS-game experience is almost enough to get a decent position in the ladder.
But when i then played bronze league games in 3vs3 later i got owned badly by cheese, cheese, cheese.
I sometimes feel like bronze league games are far more demanding then games in higher leagues like plat or diamond because of the high cheese factor. You always have to scout like in the first 3 minutes.

 

[Slapshot136]

You always have to scout like in the first 3 minutes.

the top-tier players always scout as well, what else is new?

 

[Whitesock]

I sometimes feel like bronze league games are far more demanding then games in higher leagues like plat or diamond because of the high cheese factor.

It's still really common in higher level games. The difference is that people know more about how to defend against it and take the game into a more classic approach.

 

[s3rius]

the top-tier players always scout as well, what else is new?

Well it's just the cheeses in lower leagues.. there's a lot of it.

 

[Romek]

Updated.

> Glad to see that you are doing it. Best of luck with it !
> Good luck to you romek
Thanks!

> maybe you upload some replays? You can learn alot if you watch your own play and get some commentary.
Commentary on these games will just be silly. I do almost everything wrong anyway.

> Dont forget to APM Spam - thats what all the pros do!
I think I'll pass.

> Just remember to always keep your resources low and you should shoot up!
So I just make no drones? Awesome.

 

[Whitesock]

Just remember when droning as a zerg that you drone when he is playing defensive, otherwise you wont have enough larvae to deal with his attack. If he's just harrassing you can drone if you have some spines and queens to defend.

 

[Ninva]

Cool idea, good luck.

 

[thewrongvine]

Good luck.
I'll slowly be "getting into it" again as well. All I've done so far is do a 2v2 with a friend, we lost 2 and won 1 so far, so I am worried, :3

 

[Romek]

> Just remember when droning as a zerg that you drone when he is playing defensive, otherwise you wont have enough larvae to deal with his attack. If he's just harrassing you can drone if you have some spines and queens to defend.
Will do.

> Cool idea, good luck.
> Good luck.
Thanks!

> I'll slowly be "getting into it" again as well. All I've done so far is do a 2v2 with a friend, we lost 2 and won 1 so far, so I am worried, :3
Losing is horrible when you're already lacking motivation. That's one of the reasons I made this thread.

Day 2

Game 1

Another ZvZ. I opened with a 10-pool which did absolutely nothing. My opponent seemed to prematurely place spine-crawlers in his base such that my initial zergling harass did nothing, and I was then behind for quite a while. He teched quickly to Roaches, and ended up simply killing me.

Any help/comments on what I could've done in this situation? What did I do wrong?
​

Game 2

ZvT on Scrap Station. I think I simply played better than my opponent in all aspects here. His initial push did absolutely nothing. His drop also didn't do as much as it should've, despite my forces being on the other side of the map.
He left prematurely, though the game wouldn't have lasted long after that (16 SCVs (2 base) vs 49 Drones (3 base)).
​

Expect more than two games every few days starting today!

 

[Whitesock]

Sounds like for the first game you should have taken advantage of the fact that he was making too much defense early. In that case you should go for a quick extra base. Also in ZvZ you can basically put your overlords all over the map since zerg has terrible anti air options early game. Use overlords to scout his tech and timing, it's ok if one or two of them die because the info you will get is invaluable. Expect to see roaches a lot in ZvZ. The only counter to roaches for early game zerg is to have more roaches. Try to get infestors up quickly as well and then look for a late game roach hydra infestor ball. If the game goes even longer than that, get brood lords.

It sounds like to me you just didn't scout enough though. I'll check the replay real quick and see if your macro was/was not holding you back.

EDIT: Ok after watching the replay I can tell you why you lost. Your infestors got sniped at the very beginning of the final battle. Make sure they aren't out of position like that. They need to be behind your roaches. Infestors deal so so much damage and limit your opponents potential to deal damage. Other than that you played fine. Just make sure you saturate you mineral lines more. 2 drones per patch is where you want to be as zerg. It's about 20 per base so around 60-70 for 3 base. That's why its so important to scout his army size in zvz to know when you can drone for a round and when you need to be spamming units. Even though he was on 2 base and you had 3, he still had a better saturation and therefore a better eco, though you did have infestors and he did not so chances are if they didn't die so quickly you could have held him off.

 

[Romek]

> Sounds like for the first game you should have taken advantage of the fact that he was making too much defense early. In that case you should go for a quick extra base
I think I did that.

> Also in ZvZ you can basically put your overlords all over the map since zerg has terrible anti air options early game. Use overlords to scout his tech and timing, it's ok if one or two of them die because the info you will get is invaluable.
I'll remember that.

> It sounds like to me you just didn't scout enough though. I'll check the replay real quick and see if your macro was/was not holding you back.
It probably was. It probably does in every game though, and I'd be surprised if my macro was anything above mediocre. Thanks though.

 

[Whitesock]

Most of my speculation before the edit you were actual fine on though. Just a few key mistakes in the edited portion. Your macro wasn't that bad and you did scout quite well.

 

[Slapshot136]

I thought it was 3 per mineral patch, and most bases have 8 patches, so 24 drones - the exact amount that you can select

 

[YourFace]

Oh you guys are always too analytical about this game. All you need to do to get to masters is learn how to beat all the bs that terrans bring to the game.

 

[Bloodcount]

>Oh you guys are always too analytical about this game. All you need to do to get to masters is learn how to beat all the bs that terrans bring to the game.

From a masters point of view, I disagree. Atleast in EU, 80+ of the terrans in general don't play macro at all, it is always a 1 base play, 70-ish% of the zergs do a all in, 40-60% of the pvp they try to cannon or 2 gate me ^_^

So the higher you go, the more experienced and powerful bullshit you will encounter : D

>I sometimes feel like bronze league games are far more demanding then games in higher leagues like plat or diamond because of the high cheese factor.

SCII is a general cheese fest ^_^

>You always have to scout like in the first 3 minutes

That is a pretty good info, things to look which aren't as obvious as the number of unit production facilities are:

How many gas has he taken.

How much energy does he have on his nexus

Has he upgraded to an orbital command ?

Has he walled off ? If what with what ?

Where did that probe that scouted me go ? Did I kill it ? If not send 2 lings to check EVERYWHERE on the map. : )

I haven't seen the games, but the second game
49 vs 16 workers was clear enough. You aren't for silver. Gold is where the players have some understanding of the game, I am positive that you can get wins with whatever strat you want at this level, don't do funky shit, since you need to practise the stand up macro, atleast for now

Anyway, I wanna see you winning 5+ games, atleast 3 days a week : P the more the better : )