CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! I can call myself a Platinum league player now!
There isn't much to say in the way of how the game played out. If you've read my posts in the past then you know I went 2 rax poke into 2-1-1 all-in. This was my placement match for the start of the new season and after I won the game, I nervously waited as the "loading" symbol began to spin. I literally jumped out of my chair as I saw the placement screen with a shiny new platinum symbol next to my name!
I've gotten to play around 25 games in the new league, and it is rough. I am hovering between 30-50th place. I was so nervous within the first 10 games of not winning any and getting instantly demoted. Luckily for me, that didn't happen and I've been clawing my way up the ladder. There are a couple observations I wanted to make about the jump from Gold to Platinum.
1.) Faster Players
Plain and simple, there's a noticeable jump in the speed at which people are playing. I've noticed that people are playing from 70-200APM (Actions Per Minute). While you don't need 200 APM to win, these players don't give up as easily and try to use their speed to micro their way out of what would be a sure loss for a slower player.
2.) Better Macro
This is one thing that I attribute a lot of my losses to. I NEED to work on better worker producing from all of my buildings so that I am hitting all of my benchmarks. A solid platinum player has the basic mechanics perfected and this allows them to be confident in engagements because they will have the maximum army size possible relative to a given time in the game.
3.) Unorthodox Builds/All-ins
So, either people will play super standard, but hit all of the benchmarks and do everything they need to, or people will come at you with a 1 base all-in that is different to what I was used to playing against in Gold. Following is what I faced in Gold, and what I'm seeing in Platinum(G/P).
vs. Z - Baneling Bust/8 pool
vs. P - 3 gate robo expand/void ray all-in or 4 gate or Cannon Rush
vs. T - Mass marine/MECH or heavy drop play
It sucks because every game I'm stressing over what is going to be coming at me regardless of scouting. I still have to do a bit more studying on what I see as I scout and how I'm going to respond to it. It's like getting used to playing against a whole new style against each race.
4.) Less Zergs/More Protoss
I'm pretty sure this has been proven statistically, so I'm not surprised. As you move up in experience
there are less and less Zerg's competing at the higher levels. As a result of this, I have been plying a TON against Protoss, which isn't a bad thing! I'm very comfortable in this match-up, as you would know from my win-rate vs. them, and I know my build almost to perfection.
Just wanted to post a little bit of Starcraft related news after that massive post about 2012 :D
Good luck this season everyone and look for Reedy on the ladder! If you run into me feel free to say hi!
I just wanted to take some time to talk about some of the awesome parts of 2012, and record them somewhere to be able to reflect back on them as well be able to show all of you what I've been up to!
Here are the Top 10 best moments of 2012 for me, lets starts from the top:
10.)Promotion + Finishing 3rd in Gold league
Alright, so I've got to keep my priorities straight everyone and while I am proud of myself for working my way up to the top of Gold League, I can't place this any higher on the list. I think at the beginning of this year I was somewhere around mid-silver. I feel like I have been consistently improving my game over the months, and I am now on the edge of another promotion into Platinum! (Woot ^.^) I've probably taken a lot longer than most to get to where I am, but I'm in no rush. I've had a lot going outside the game that I care more about or want to concentrate on more, and personal growth in the end is what it is all about for me. I'll do another post about wrapping up the current builds I'm using and a more in depth re-cap of the season as I normally do. Hopefully this time next year I can say I'm high up in Platinum!
9.) Balloon ride
For my birthday I was given a special birthday present from my parents, but first I had to be blindfolded and driven to a "secret" location. If you read my previous post about this experience (21st Bday post) then you know that I was scared to death at first when that balloon took off. I'm not afraid of heights per-say, but I'll characterize it as "I need to get comfortable". However, the speed at which that balloon took off didn't allow for much of that. Once you get up into the sky though it is such a beautiful sight and the view is just as breathtaking as anyone could imagine (if the ascent hasn't already done that to you).
Don't tell my girlfriend but I would totally take another balloon ride, and I hope that the next time with some begging and pleading I miiiiiight be able to persuade her to go. On my birthday, I actually convinced my 11 year-old brother Ryan to go with me about 10 minutes before take off! Here are just a couple of the pictures I took while floating on.
8.) Ran a 5k
About 6 or 7 years ago my family started a tradition of running the Flemington, NJ Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot. The last 2 years...I got kind of lazy, and didn't run. But this year I made a comeback! I did a little training up in Vermont before I came home for break, and got up bright and early with my dad and two brothers and we headed off to the race.
This race has been growing every year, this year there were around 6-7,000 people!! I think that when I started running this race years ago there were probably no more than 2,000, so it has grown very quickly over the last couple of years.
Take a guess what minute marker I started at based on these pictures...
6:00 min/mile pace :O
and there were still easily 1,000 people in front of me with 5:00 min/mile being the starting line. It was so ridiculously packed, but such a fun time. As you could expect, those running the 5K repeatedly said "glad I'm getting my workout in so I can devour turkey later!"
And the winner is...
Andrew (20, Right) - 22:30
Ryan (12, center) - 24:50
Kyle (Me :D, Left, 21) - 24:55
Dad (Back, 48) - 25:15
Andrew!
7.) Canada
In the past, we have gone to Sand Lake and that is where we went again over the summer for a week packed
full of fishing, fishing, and fishing with some tubing, water-skiing,
and wake-boarding sprinkled in. Literally, my little brother Ryan and I get up at 6am
and fish until breakfast around 10am, and then we will head out as soon
as we can call it "evening" and fish until the mosquitoes are chewing
me apart. We look forward to the fishing every year and breaking some of
our own records for Bass and Pike.
On the left and right are shots that I took on the first and second morning of fishing. The lake isn't very populated so it's literally glass and untouched until we hit the water. The bottom was a beautiful shot I took on the last evening of fishing. I love Sand Lake.
Just in case you are wondering, YES, I did catch fish as well. Ryan, however, dominated this year and so I think he deserves the photo op. He just got a new pole for Christmas, so I'm sure he excited to get 'em again next year!
According to Ryan, our record (caught by him) was a monster 6 pound bass that we caught on a live minnow. It might be the one on the left, but I'm not sure because a lot of the fish we caught this year pretty big (stealth brag). It is so nice to get away from everything for a week and just go live in a quiet and peaceful place and enjoy just that. Living in the middle of nowhere is probably not for everybody, but getting to stay on a lake that isn't crowded and noisy and live in a house that is nicely furnished and a fun place to be is one of the most fun vacations I can go on!
6.) Completing my Criminal Justice Administration class
This one isn't going to get a long schpeal because it made my semester hell, and it doesn't deserve any further recognition. On top of normal classes and tests, we had to create the "ideal" criminal justice agency. As it turns out, it is a pain in the ASS to do so from the ground up. After putting over 100 hours into it with my group we made an 80 page agency design, and presented our ideas to the class to get over one of the biggest hurdles in my major. Good riddance CJ Admin, you can stay in 2012.
5.) Turning 21/casino trip/playing poker live
Turning 21 was AWESOME. I love being of age to go to casinos and buy my own alcohol. It's a cool feeling and while I don't abuse either of those privileges it is nice to have the freedom to do either. If you want to read about my birthday and my first trip to Sands Casino (yes, I've been since), then I would like to check out that post here! The activity that is coming in at #5 is finally have the guts to sit down and play live poker. It was only a $1/2 NL game, but I was nervous as soon as I sat down with $160 in front of me. I was shaking as I bet, I played SUCH a tight range, and I didn't really get much done, but I didn't go broke! Now that I have 1 small session under my belt I will be much more confident going into the next cash game/tournament I play and I'm so excited to play again! For Christmas, my family gave $50 to go toward the $100 buy weekly tournament they run, so hopefully I can have some run good and place well in the next couple of weeks. I can't play online, yet, but now I am over the nerves of playing live, and it's a great feeling.
(Sorry it's sideways, didn't want to look like a n00b taking a picture playing live poker)
4.) Warped Tour I have gone to Warped Tour for the past 3 years with my girlfriend Jenna and other friends that make the trip down from VT and NH mainly. I looooooveee going because obviously you get to see a ton of your favorite bands, and run your back account into the ground buying merch or simply paying for the ATM fee to withdraw money (...ask me about last year). I got to take a couple good pictures but when you spend the entire day at the venue you need to make battery life last the whole day, so I also want to list the bands that I got to see. Some were for the first time, some were for the 2nd and 3rd time!
I recorded Of Mice and Men playing Second and Sebring!
Of Mice and Men
Falling in Reverse
Take a guess!
So here is a list of the bands that I got to see:
- All Time Low
- Bayside
- Chunk!, No Captain Chunk!
- Falling in Reverse
- For Today
- Mayday Parade
- Miss May I
- New Found Glory
- Pierce the Veil
-Polar Bear Club
Continued:
- Sleeping with Sirens
- Streetlight Manifesto
- Taking Back Sunday
- Yellowcard
Wow! After counting them up that I got to see 14 bands. I also bought an Of Mice and Men t-shirt, their CD, and expensive venue food and beer!
Even though every warped tour I have been to has been a SCORCHER and I'm completely drained at the end, it always turns out to be a great time. Another plus is when you finally get home, the feeling of AC and a comfy bed or couch is the greatest feeling ever for that moment and you most likely just pass out. I'm already stalking the band list for Warped Tour 2013!
3.) Winning the academic excellence award in Criminal Justice
During the spring 2012 semester I had a blue envelope show up in my campus mailbox. This usually means one of two things, either I am in trouble and it is telling me who I need to meet with or an administrative office needs to get a hold of me. It turns that blue envelope was them informing me that I had been selected to receive the academic excellence award for Criminal Justice! I was so honored to be picked out of all of the CRJ majors, and I was so excited because winning awards is not something I do often. There was a nice reception and my mom and grandma drove up to attend the awards ceremony, and Jenna came as well. I get really embarrassed in front of people, so being up on stage and having my professor speaking about what a great student I am definitely made me bashful.
2.) Taking the LSAT/applying to law schools
I took the October LSAT, and if you'd like to see a more in depth post click here. I ended up getting a 145, and immediately signed up for the December LSAT. I am currently awaiting the results for that test, and they should be here by January 5th. I'm definitely getting nervous. Regardless of what score I get I will be applying to a couple of law schools, and I might shoot one out to a school or two far away and see what happens. I know I'm not going to be getting into any prestigious law school, but I'm proud of myself for following this dream of trying to make it into law school and become an attorney. If I don't get accepted now, I am completely fine with that and I wouldn't mind getting a full time job in a law office as a legal assistant or a paralegal so that I can build my resume more and give myself a better shot of getting in next time I apply. Employers! If you are looking for a hardworking, knowledgeable, and dedicated individual who can learn fast and has a passion for the law drop me a comment! (shameless job-hunt plug)
Here are the schools that I am applying to as of now:
- Rutgers - Newark
- Rutgers - Camden
- Earle Mack (Drexel)
- Vermont Law School
- Seton Hall
- Widener Law
If I get into any law school, you can be sure that I will be posting about it because I will FREAKING OUT WITH EXCITEMENT!
1.) Celebrating 2 1/2 years with Jenna
We've been together for 2 years + 8 months, but I just picked the nearest "milestone" that we celebrated. I actually take her on "Monthaversary" dates, so we've been celebrating every 30 days! In all seriousness though, I am such a lucky guy to be dating Jenna. I think one of the best qualities we have as a couple is that we can be ourselves, and we never feel like we need to perform or act like someone we aren't. Whether we are bummin' around the house hanging on our computers, cuddling up to watch Scrubs, or shopping (Yes Jenna shopping) we just feel happy and relaxed to be together. If you keep up with either of our blogs, you may have noticed that Jenna has graduated, and I am unfortunately still in school. While the first 9 months of this year were amazing due to the fact that we saw each other every day during the spring semester last year, and got to do things like warped tour and go to the beach and spend a lot of time together, this past fall semester has been admittedly harder for us because she is living in NJ and working full-time at a hospital and I am going to school in VT :(
BUT
We made it through 2012 together, and looking forward to the future makes me so excited because while I have 1 semester to go, it is my last semester of school in VT! I will be graduating in May, and I want to start planning and deciding where we can afford to live. Sharing an apartment together has been a dream of ours for a long time because we have had to live, at a minimum, an hour from each other throughout our whole relationship (excluding school). I'm excited for the future because of the possibilities we have together. I loved spending 2012 with Jenna, but I'm so excited for us to do so much more in 2013! I'll just post a couple cheesy of photos of us from the last 12 months to close this out, but Jenna is my #1 :)
If you made it this far, please, tell me what your best moment of the last year was! I hope you enjoyed hearing all about my life, and I hope this Top 10 looks as exciting and interesting to you as it was for me to experience! Thanks for reading!
Graduation Day! May 2012
Cheers!
New Years Eve! I took Jenna out on a date and we had some delicious food. Chicken nachos, that is all I'm gonna say.
As promised, I have made a tutorial for the build that I talked about in my last post and that I used all during season 8 to a get a TvP win rate of 63%!
Here is the build order:
10 supply
12 rax
14 gas
15 OC + marine (reactor after marine)
16 rax #2 (tech lab right after)
17 supply
^^that is all you need to set up the poke.
Remember
-It's just a poke, try not to lose all of your units
-Push with your first marauder
-constant 2 marine 1 marauder production
-rally to the front of his base(or a marauder)
- Decide based on what you see whether you will keep harassing or head home to build up an army.
In the event that the poke didn't win the game (which it won't a lot of the time)
- take 2nd gas + factory (add tech lab once done) - build starport right after
- goal is to push with 3 tank (siege finished), 1 medivac, and a ball of army.
- tech lab on starport-start banshee as you push out.
- Lastly, pull 8-12 SCVs and get over to his base ASAP.
Good luck and I hope this build brings you a lot of success!
It's finally over, and the results are in! This was my first season being promoted to Gold league, and I'd say I did pretty damn well. Adjusting from Silver wasn't all that difficult because there isn't too much of a skill gap between and anyone in silver and anyone outside of, I'd say, Top 25 Gold. This season really was a roller coaster for me in terms of rank. I broke into the top 8, moving into 6th place, briefly by going on a total rampage against Protoss and Terran for about a weeks worth of play. There is definitely a noticeable difference in skill within the Top 8 because these people are knocking of the door of Platinum, or just got kicked out that same door and are trying to fight their way back in. I played some pretty tough people, and was slowly squeezed back out of Top 8.
When the season finally ended, I secured a 19th place finish. I'm both
proud of this, but it leaves SO much more room for improvement. I'm not sure if I mentioned it in a previous post, but I've been keeping an excel sheet of all of my games so that I can track my win/loss record because Blizzard won't give us any help on this one.
For the next part I'll be doing what I always do, and that is break down, race by race, the current builds that I am using that have shown me success. BUT, on top of the builds I am now pleased to say that I will be able to run the numbers and analyze just how effective my current builds are! This is the part I've been the most excited to write about since I started keeping a W/L record!
I tried to record every
game I played, but I’m sure a couple slipped through the cracks. I played a total of 223 games and had an overall win rate of 51.5%. Even though
I had to collect the stats, it’s pretty neat to see Blizzard’s system at work;
matching you against stronger and weaker players dependent on how you do, with
the eventual goal of finding a place in the ladder system where you will
maintain a 50% win-rate. Once you got too far below or above this number you
will be promoted/demoted. I’ll take that extra 1.5%, and we’ll call it progressing towards Platinum haha.
I’ll go from best matchup to worst in terms of win %.
*drumroll*
Protoss W/L – 42-24
– 63%
Can you believe it?! I’m crushing this matchup! It may be
arrogant of me to think, but when I see this matchup pop up on the loading
screen I am overcome with joy. I have a lot of confidence in this build, and I
haven’t really used much else since I learned of it.
Build: 2 Rax poke into 2-1-1 all-in
Now, I know this sounds cheesy, and that’s because it really
is. It’s a big wheel of cheese rolling right at the Protoss, and it is hard for
them to see it coming. I know there isn’t much behind this promise due to my
lack of recording, but to explain this and do it justice I need to put some
gameplay to it. Now, I’ve already made a video of the 2-1-1 all-in but that did
not include the 2-rax poke and how to use it.
Here the opening build order:
10 supply
12 rax 1 marine then reactor @50 gas
14 gas
15 OC
16 rax tech lab immediately, then start concussive shells
17 supply
- Constant marines + marauders, push with the first ~4
marines and 1 marauder.
-If you do it right, you should have a 1000 dollar army, combat shields on the way, and 24 workers at 6 minutes. It takes some
practice, but the glory of this poke is that it doesn’t cut economy, while allowing you to put some pressure on your opponent.
-I will tie the two pieces of this build together in a
video.
Terran W/L – 33-30
– 52.3%
The TvT match-up is a giant chess match, more so than either
of the other match-ups. Due to the fact that there was nothing outstanding
really with the build order I WAS using, I want to talk about a build that I
adopted after being crushed by it one match. It requires the ability to micro with
your harass, and macro back home otherwise you aren’t gaining an advantage from
it. I practiced it for a while, and through my first ten games versus Terran
I’ve won eight of them! The amount of things going on in this build would be hard
to summarize in words, but please don’t let that scare you. I’m in Gold league
remember?
The opening is a 1-1-1 hellion drop -> expand -> into cloaked banshees -> marine/tank/medivac
It goes something like this:
10 supply
12 gas
13 rax
17 supply
18 factory - @50 gas put reactor on rax, switch when it
finishes and make 4 hellions.
19 OC
- Starport + 2nd gas –make a medivac, load up
hellions, and drop his mineral line. Tech lab once the medivac finishes
~32 CC
-From here you move into cloaked banshees to continue the
harass
- Macro, macro, macro. Put the rax on the reactor, and make
a tech lab on the naked factory.
- If he survived this and you did damage, he’s in bad shape.
You’ve got a full 2 base income and now it is a matter of just building up a big
enough army with this advantage and walking across the map and crushing him
with it.
This build is fun to pull off because you don’t have to wait
until the 10-minute mark to find out whose army is bigger. You can now do
damage from 7-10 minutes to assure that
you will have a bigger army.
Lastly, with the current meta-game who in their right mind
is going to pin you on a hellion drop at 7-8 minutes?? Not many, and that is
why people never see it coming. I will also make a video breaking this build down.
Zerg W/L – 35-49
– 39.3%
I will ask again, “HELP ME PLEASE”. This match-up still
continues to frustrate me. I don’t have a solid build order yet, so I won’t be
talking about one. After I saw what my final win % was I instantly threw out
what I was using. I began to think why I can’t compete with good Zergs, and it’s
because of their ability to have such a sick economy in the early-mid game. A
Terran’s economy doesn’t begin to flourish until around the 9-10 minute mark,
giving Zergs all the time they need to harass, or outright win with a bane bust
or influx of lings.
So you know what I’ve begun to do? I’m just as greedy as the
Zerg by using a variation of the now popular 3OC build – I go CC first! That’s
right, three fuckin' Command Centers feeding my main and natural. While it’s a
struggle to deal with harass in the beginning, your economy literally EXPLODES by 7-8 minutes in. I’ve never
been able to be that active that early in the game before.
I’ll end here and promise a video for this build as well.
Overall, I would say that Season 8…er…3, was a success for
me because I was able to compete with those at the top of my league, and even
beyond! I beat 6 platinum players, and that gives me hope that I can keeping
growing. I haven’t maxed out my skill yet.
So, after all of this reading how are your eyes feeling? I
hope you found something interesting/useful in this post. My next three posts
are going to address each race and the builds that I am using in more detail.
I am on FIRE right now. I started today ~11th place
As usual, here are my win ratios by race for the day:
TvT 10-0
TvP 3-4
TvZ 5-2
I was so surprised when I was working out the win rates and I hadn't lost to Terran all day. This used to be my worst match up, and I know the exact reason. I was stuck in the mindset of "marines can do anything" and "you can win without tanks". While it is possible to dos, I have found that it is much easier to just do a better job at building tanks than your opponent. A lot of the Terrans I played today just had build orders that were slow, and couldn't defend against a push in the mid game. So, I have succumbed to using tanks, but apparently it is working really well for me!
Protoss...well, I don't really know. I still use the Halby 2-1-1 build that I made a video for (you can find it on my blog), but the stupid buff for the observer build time is allowing the Protoss to easily counter me because they know what is coming a good minute ahead of time. It's frustrating, but I'll have to figure something out. This is turning into my weakest match up because I simply don't know what to do. Maybe give a mech a try? If you have any suggestions leave a comment!
Speaking of mech, I have been obliterating Zerg players using the DeMuslim push into thor/banshee/marine. I have not face much of a challenge using this style of play. It took some getting used to because I love marines, I always felt that Mech was so sluggish, but the amount of damage it can handle is incredible. If you bring along SVCs to auto-repair you have almost invincible units.
I'm going to be going more into about this match up in particular for this post because I think Zerg is the race that low level Terrans, like myself, have A LOT of trouble handling.
I'll try to keep this from becoming a wall of text, so I'll leave a lot of talking to be done in the video.
Here I will post the build order that leads up to the initial first push. This push is designed to take out the Zerg's third base at around the 9:30-10:00 mark. So here we go!
DeMuslim Push Build Order 3-1-0 into 3-3-2
10 supply
12 rax
14 supply
16 gas
17 Obital
20 CC
21 Factory
23 (reactor on rax)
- Rax #2 (tech lab as soon as done-start stim)
- Rax #3 (tech lab as soon as done-start combat shield)
-ebay (start +1 attack)
-bunker
-supply
NOTE
This is a VERY basic build order, and you do really need to watch the video because you need to put the buildings in the right places. At the 10:00 minute mark, or whenever stim finishes you need to push out and try to take down their 3rd with what should be, if done perfectly, a $3500 dollar army including research. You'll have stim, combat shield, and +1 weapons, and this push will be very deadly.
From here, as the name of the BO suggests, you need to throw down 2 more factories, and 2 starports. From here I like to transition right into mech. So for your next push you'll have thor/marines/banshees and he probably won't expect it. You end up teching up real quick after the first push and it makes it hard for the Zerg to catch up. Just make sure you continue to deny his expansions, while adding on your own.
DeMuslim Build into mech - TvZ
After of day of kicking some ass, I guess/hope you would be curious as to how much progress I made today. Well, here we are!
I'm 1st place in Silver league!! I'm going into tomorrow with a 9-game win streak. I would be ecstatic if I got promoted :)
P.S. Next post will be focusing on Terran, to those who are stuck trying to win dreaded tank wars :) -Kyle
Like I promised in my last video, I would be posting another game play that went a bit more typical than a Nydus worm in the back of your base : P
So here it is! Just a few pointers that I'll also mention in the video: Split your marines Keep as many troops alive as to build your army, Contain the Zerg Expand (~8-9 minutes) so you can maintain marine production/ Take double gas as you expand, then get at least combat shield to continue the contain.
Lastly, if he doesn't quit you want to keep him on 2 bases until he runs out of minerals.
I'm on break again, and I'm going to try and push out at least 2-4 videos this week. This one is TLO's Six Rax Rush.
I will post a more standard using this build when it happens, check out the video to find out why it might not be such a "typical" game.
He is the build order that I use to execute this build.
10 supply
12 rax
14 supply
15 Orbital Command
~17 build 5 rax
- spend money on ONLY marines. You should push out around the 6:30 mark(or 35 supply) with about 17 marines.
- you should have about 18 SCV's mining.
Set the way point to the front of the Zerg's base for reinforcements and continue building only marines.
